The report on the investigation into July's deadly high-speed train crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, raised some unnerving questions about the safety of the mainland's high-speed rail network without supplying any answers.
A 'serious' software bug in the main computer of the train control system at a station played a pivotal part in the accident that killed 40 passengers and injured more than 200, the report said.
But who wrote the source code? Which lines are affected? Why has the programmer gone unpunished? Is there a patch? If so, what is it and has it been applied? Professor Wang Mengshu , deputy technical director of the 34-member investigation panel, said yesterday they had not found the problematic lines of source code, and the investigation was continuing.
He also confirmed that the train control system, designed by the Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication, and still in use at Wenzhou South station, had used foreign companies' components and software.
'The problem is very sophisticated and the investigation will continue,' he said.
The report also says emergency services were at the crash scene 12 minutes after it happened, but witnesses said it took a lot longer.
Most experts in the high-speed rail industry agree that the mainland's technology has borrowed heavily from other countries.