Rail network 'going too fast'

The fatal train collision in Wenzhou on Saturday showed how Beijing had ignored the hazards of its fast-paced development of infrastructure in recent years, mainland scholars said.

Saturday's incident was only the latest of several railway accidents in the past four years, three of which resulted in double-digit death tolls. The newly opened, landmark Shanghai-Beijing line has suffered repeated power failures that have delayed hundreds of journeys.

The massive spending by the Ministry of Railways, which was 1.8 trillion yuan (HK$2.18 trillion) in debt at the end of last year, has also raised concern. Its plan to build 16,000 kilometres of high-speed railways across the country by 2020 will involve a further investment of at least 2 trillion yuan, one academic estimated.

'The yearly interest for the ministry's debt will soon exceed 100 billion yuan, and its only source to repay it is the 50-billion-yuan railway construction fund [from the state treasury],' said Zhao Jian from Beijing Jiaotong University.

'Without support from the central government's 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package, and without a new way to finance the increasing interest, the ministry's cash flow will rupture,' he warned.

China rolled out the stimulus package in 2008 to spur domestic consumption to counter the slump in demand for Chinese exports during the global economic recession. Much of the stimulus has been spent on infrastructure projects, including high-speed railways.

Mao Shoulong , a specialist in public policy at Renmin University, said the rush to develop the rail sector had led to quality problems.