Doubts remain on railway safety
Beijing seems to think it has made all the right moves and noises since the high-speed-rail accident near the Zhejiang town of Wenzhou last July. An investigation has been carried out and a report issued, top officials have been sacked and arrested, and the brakes put on breakneck construction and speeds. But confidence has not yet returned. Travellers are reticent about buying tickets and foreign governments that had shown interest in signing contracts for similar systems are having second thoughts. The reaction is understandable. More questions need to be answered but there is that ever-present gap between what gets said and what is actually done.
Such a process is about fixing failings and ensuring they are never repeated. That crucial technical details were missing from last week's long-overdue report does not augur well. Nor, despite the admitted massive scale of negligence towards safety in the Railways Ministry, is it comforting that most of the blame has been directed at just three people: former railways minister Liu Zhijun, dismissed amid corruption allegations months before the crash; Zhang Shuguang, the ministry's former chief engineer, sacked along with Liu; and Ma Cheng, president of the China Railway Signal and Communication Corporation, who died shortly after the accident. Liu and Zhang face criminal charges, while another 54 officials will, at the least, receive administrative punishments, the State Council has said.
For the relatives of the 40 people killed and the almost 200 injured when the two high-speed trains collided after a signal failure, such retribution is not enough. Authorities had for months given all manner of assurances about safety. High-speed railways had been made a centrepiece of the government's proposals to make China a technological powerhouse. Under the latest five-year plan, a massive investment - 2.8 trillion yuan (HK$3.4 trillion) - had been set aside for construction to the end of 2015.
It is good that the government has slowed down construction and taken a more conservative approach. Rushed development with an eye on beating deadlines rather than ensuring safety surely played a part in the Wenzhou tragedy. Corruption and the cutting of corners and use of inferior material and equipment no doubt also contributed. To what degree is still uncertain, though.
Amid public anger after the crash, Premier Wen Jiabao promised a transparent investigation and said accountability would be uppermost. Safety would no longer be compromised for the sake of speed, he pledged. Despite the rhetoric and all that has so far been done, there is still no assurance. While corruption is rampant, the media remains muzzled and enforcement of rules continues to be weak, doubts will rightly persist about the safety of high-speed railways.