China’s Prize High-Speed Rail Line Plagued by Glitches

[Bonobo]

China’s Railways Ministry last week was boasting of the superiority of its high-speed rail system, saying its technology is superior to that of Japan’s vaunted Shinkansen.
So there must be a few red faces over the spate of glitches that have befallen the system’s most trumpeted line.

On Wednesday, service on the Beijing-Shanghai line was temporarily halted after one of the trains broke down, causing hundreds of passengers to have to transfer to another train to complete their journey. It was the third delay in four days on the line, which officially launched on June 30 with Premier Wen Jiabao among its inaugural riders. Power failures caused 29 trains to be stopped on Tuesday, after a similar mishap halted 11 trains Sunday.

Wednesday’s breakdown happened at a stop in Changzhou in the eastern province of Jiangsu, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing a spokesman for the Shanghai Railway Bureau. The spokesman didn’t specify the cause, it said. Tuesday’s incident occurred in a section between Bengbu and Suzhou. The Chinese Ministry of Railways posted a statement the same day apologizing for the accident.

“It leaves a question mark on China’s operational know-how,” said an executive with one of the four foreign companies that sold China high-speed technology several years ago. He said it is tough to make any definitive judgment because of the dearth of information. “In Europe and Japan, operators are more upfront and honest in disclosing information relating to accidents and malfunctions.”

[Common Sense Party]

1. And this comes shortly after one of their brand new highways collapsed

a section of it, at least--two days after its grand opening.

http://english.eastday.com/e/110711/u1a5989277.html

Perhaps the "Chinese Miracle" is not as miraculous as we've been led to believe?

[ArcticFox]

2. Shoddy construction

According to the article, the roadway collapsed because of the weight of the water on the road. Every roadbuilder should know that it rains. The photo looks like they just built a wall and back-filled it. I don't see any tie-backs or anything there.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. I'm wondering how many corners they cut to build the world's longest ocean bridge

and the world's biggest dam.

[Common Sense Party]

5. I imagine we will find out eventually.

They're in such a rush to slap things together and put up big projects to show the world how they're modernizing, that they're bypassing most sensible standards and building codes.

Wasn't there an earthquake a few years ago in rural China? I seem to remember schools that collapsed on children and the parents were furious that the construction had been so shoddy.

I'm afraid more disasters are coming.

On edit: Here's the link about the Chinese schools:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/science/topics/earthquakes/sichuan_province_china/index.html

[joshcryer]

7. Holy shit, I do construction, while I don't do road work stuff, and that picture is low quality...

...I'd say anyone who saw that section of road would've known it was a disaster waiting to happen. That is eroding clay, the wall is far too high to handle the weight of the shifting clay, there's no backfill, no large rocks to stop the erosion. Wow. No words really.

[Common Sense Party]

8. I don't know beans about construction, but it looks pretty hinky to me.

I appreciate hearing from others on this thread who DO know what good construction standards are, and know that THIS ain't it:

[somone]

4. Corruption and cutting corners are endemic in China

so no surprise there

[Skittles]

6. their software is the same