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Saturday, 28 November 2009
State train makers under fire for poor standards
A senior rail official has criticised the quality and safety standards of the mainland’s growing fleet of high-speed trains, a serious blow for the country as it fast tracks construction of what will be the world’s largest high-speed train network.
Official exposes problems undermining high-speed network
Toh Han Shih 28 November 2009
A senior rail official has criticised the quality and safety standards of the mainland’s growing fleet of high-speed trains, a serious blow for the country as it fast tracks construction of what will be the world’s largest high-speed train network.
Zhang Shuguang, a vice-chief engineer and chief of the transport bureau at the Ministry of Railways, told an industry meeting that the train manufacturing process had “exposed a lot of quality issues”.
Zhang singled out “safety, management and quality” of trains being manufactured at CNR Changchun, CSR Sifang and CNR Tangshan.
CNR Changchun and CNR Tangshan are subsidiaries of China CNR Corp, one of the mainland’s two dominant state-owned train manufacturers.
CSR Sifang is a subsidiary of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp, the other leading state-owned rolling stock maker.
“There are many problems with product quality. We invite you to immediately correct this bad tendency,” Zhang told the meeting.
High-speed trains are usually capable of speeds of 200 km/h or more.
This year, China South and China CNR have won 152.4 billion yuan (HK$172.96 billion) of orders from the Ministry of Railways and the country is expected to overtake Europe with the largest high-speed rail system in the world by 2012.
China South is also tipped as the favourite to win the contract to supply high-speed trains to the fledgling fast rail system in the United States. It is also in advanced talks to sell high-speed trains to Britain.
China South and China CNR have joint ventures with foreign rolling stock manufacturers such as Siemens of Germany, Alstom of France and Bombardier of Canada, from whom they were to acquire know-how to build the trains.
However, the technology transfer has had its failings. Railways Minister Liu Zhijun “severely criticised” CNR Tangshan during his inspection of the company in June, Zhang said.
“It shows that CNR Tangshan didn’t cherish the hard-won orders and did not really absorb Siemens technology properly,” he said.
For example, in March, CNR bought train parts called “sliders” from Changzhou Baiyidar Railway Vehicles, but 40 per cent failed quality tests, he said.
“This is shoddy behaviour of suppliers, which exposed serious loopholes in the quality control of OEM (original equipment manufacturers) suppliers.”
On March 23, a fire broke out on a high-speed train in Beijing, because the electric heater and thermal protection systems failed. Insulation systems did not meet technical requirements and substandard components were used, “which brought about a serious safety risk”, Zhang said.
In another example, a substitute fire safety material that did not comply with requirements was found to have been secretly used in some trains.
“The emergence of these problems makes us very worried,” Zhang said. “Some OEMs have slipped into pride, complacency and self-importance, focusing on fighting for orders, but have not entered the factory for a long time. Teams are very weak in the factories, but management is out of control.”
Quality control groups have also found a number of other problems, such as water leakage in trains.
This year, high-speed rail equipment failures had caused network delays and problems, Zhang said.
On January 2, a relay failure caused a two-hour, 11-minute delay on the high-speed service between Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
On November 14, during a cold spell in northern China, the air-conditioning and heating systems of several high-speed trains on the Beijing-Shijiazhuang line failed.
Zhang urged high-speed rail manufacturers to maintain high safety awareness and quality standards - as if they were “close to the abyss, skating on thin ice or sitting on pins and needles”.
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State train makers under fire for poor standards
Official exposes problems undermining high-speed network
Toh Han Shih
28 November 2009
A senior rail official has criticised the quality and safety standards of the mainland’s growing fleet of high-speed trains, a serious blow for the country as it fast tracks construction of what will be the world’s largest high-speed train network.
Zhang Shuguang, a vice-chief engineer and chief of the transport bureau at the Ministry of Railways, told an industry meeting that the train manufacturing process had “exposed a lot of quality issues”.
Zhang singled out “safety, management and quality” of trains being manufactured at CNR Changchun, CSR Sifang and CNR Tangshan.
CNR Changchun and CNR Tangshan are subsidiaries of China CNR Corp, one of the mainland’s two dominant state-owned train manufacturers.
CSR Sifang is a subsidiary of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp, the other leading state-owned rolling stock maker.
“There are many problems with product quality. We invite you to immediately correct this bad tendency,” Zhang told the meeting.
High-speed trains are usually capable of speeds of 200 km/h or more.
This year, China South and China CNR have won 152.4 billion yuan (HK$172.96 billion) of orders from the Ministry of Railways and the country is expected to overtake Europe with the largest high-speed rail system in the world by 2012.
China South is also tipped as the favourite to win the contract to supply high-speed trains to the fledgling fast rail system in the United States. It is also in advanced talks to sell high-speed trains to Britain.
China South and China CNR have joint ventures with foreign rolling stock manufacturers such as Siemens of Germany, Alstom of France and Bombardier of Canada, from whom they were to acquire know-how to build the trains.
However, the technology transfer has had its failings. Railways Minister Liu Zhijun “severely criticised” CNR Tangshan during his inspection of the company in June, Zhang said.
“It shows that CNR Tangshan didn’t cherish the hard-won orders and did not really absorb Siemens technology properly,” he said.
For example, in March, CNR bought train parts called “sliders” from Changzhou Baiyidar Railway Vehicles, but 40 per cent failed quality tests, he said.
“This is shoddy behaviour of suppliers, which exposed serious loopholes in the quality control of OEM (original equipment manufacturers) suppliers.”
On March 23, a fire broke out on a high-speed train in Beijing, because the electric heater and thermal protection systems failed. Insulation systems did not meet technical requirements and substandard components were used, “which brought about a serious safety risk”, Zhang said.
In another example, a substitute fire safety material that did not comply with requirements was found to have been secretly used in some trains.
“The emergence of these problems makes us very worried,” Zhang said. “Some OEMs have slipped into pride, complacency and self-importance, focusing on fighting for orders, but have not entered the factory for a long time. Teams are very weak in the factories, but management is out of control.”
Quality control groups have also found a number of other problems, such as water leakage in trains.
This year, high-speed rail equipment failures had caused network delays and problems, Zhang said.
On January 2, a relay failure caused a two-hour, 11-minute delay on the high-speed service between Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
On November 14, during a cold spell in northern China, the air-conditioning and heating systems of several high-speed trains on the Beijing-Shijiazhuang line failed.
Zhang urged high-speed rail manufacturers to maintain high safety awareness and quality standards - as if they were “close to the abyss, skating on thin ice or sitting on pins and needles”.
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