Six years after crash, China increases max speed of bullet train again

NEW DELHI: Despite grave safety concerns following a 2011 crash , China has once again raised the maximum speed of its Beijing-Shanghai bullet train.

Maximum speed on the line was cut back to 300kmph after 40 people died in a tragic accident near Wenzhou in July of 2011. Accusations of corruption and that safety had been compromised followed the incident. Now, the top speed has been rolled back up to 350kmph which will help passengers save an hour on the 1,318-kilometre line which would now take four hours and 28 minutes to cover.

While some are still concerned over the safety measures put into place, officials say an overwhelming majority supported the change. "These trains are so popular that the tickets for today already sold out a week ago,"  an official with the China Railway Corporation was quoted as saying by Chinese news agency Xinhua.

China has one of the world's most extensive rail networks and the Beijing-Shanghai line carries more than 100 million passengers each year - both ways. The 2011 crash though was a major blemish in a country that sees its bullet trains as a symbol of advancement. In 2013, former railway minister Liu Zhijun was given a suspended death sentence for taking 64.6 million yuan ($10.6 million) in bribes. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

The bullet trains operating between Beijing and Shanghai are one of the fastest commercially operated trains in the world. Media reports say they are even capable of reaching 400kmph but safety restrictions have decided on the permissible max speed.

Several countries in the west too operate high-speed bullet trains. India too recently took the first step towards having its own network when PM Narendra Modi and Japanse PM Shinzo Abe laid the foundation stone for the ambitious Rs 1.08 lakh crore (USD 17 billion). Once completed, experts say the train would have an average speed of 320 km per hour with a maximum speed of 350 km per hour.