A Stalin-era railway system and the sector's traditional political clout is to blame for the train crash that killed 70 people this week, analysts say.
An investigation panel set up by the State Council, or cabinet, determined that speeding was responsible for Monday's deadly collision in the eastern province of Shandong because a train was travelling at 131km/h on a stretch of track with a speed limit of 80km/h.
'China's railway industry is the last stronghold of the socialist planned economy, and this backward system is chiefly to blame for the poorest service and worst safety management among all the main modes of transport,' Hu Xingdao, a political commentator at Beijing Polytechnic University, said.
Professor Hu said the tragedy reflected deep-rooted problems in the industry, which has resisted restructuring despite decades of reform in other sectors.
The railway industry is the only totally state-owned business. It is directly managed and regulated by the Ministry of Railways.
'The nature of state monopolies is to blame for poor management and service as competition and incentives for improvement are lacking,' said Ma Guoxian, director of the public policy research centre at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Professor Ma said the collision was the second major railway accident in Shandong this year. In January, 18 people died when a night train travelling at more than 120km/h slammed into about 100 workers on a track near Anqiu. Train accidents killed an average of 20 people a day on the mainland in 2005, the latest figures from the State Administration of Work Safety show.
