Wow, that was fast. Under the auspices of a restructuring of the national train timetable, the Shanghai Railway Ministry has announced that all D and G trains departing from Shanghai Station and Hongqiao Station will halt services for an undisclosed amount of time beginning on August 15. This comes right after the State Council already suspended further train project approvals around China and slowed down most of China's bullet trains. We're happy to see sings of caution in the ministries, but can only imagine the transportation nightmare that will result. The Shanghai Railway Ministry promises to have tickets and trains back up and running "as soon as possible." Let's hope they're actually doing this to fix all the glitches. more ›

Well, it was bound to happen - something needed to be done while the government figures out the aftermath of the Wenzhou crash, and firing officials, stopping production and suspending approval of future rail lines probably wouldn't be enough. Now there's been a speed decrease says China Daily: "According to the Ministry of Railways, during the initial stages, trains with a top design speed of 350 kilometers per hour will be lowered to 300 km/h, and the trains designed to run up to 250 km/h will operate at 200 km/h. The rails whose speed was previously raised to 200 km/h will be scaled down to 160 km/h. Ticket prices will also be reduced." Is the daredevil in you sad that you won't get to take that five-hour trip to Beijing? Don't be - Shanghai's keeping its speediness: The Beijing-Shanghai line and the Shanghai-Hangzhou line (as well as Beijing-Tianjing) won't be affected. more ›

At least 35 43 people were killed and over 210 injured in a horrific high-speed rail collision in Wenzhou, Zhejiang at about 8:30pm last night. The accident happened when one train, D3115, lost power after being struck by lightening, and then was rear-ended by another train, D301. A total of six carriages were derailed, two falling from the viaduct. more ›

By Bo Hershey more ›

As much as we want the high-speed railway that will shorten the travel time between Shanghai and Beijing to just four hours to be finished, we'd rather it get done a little slower if it means we can prevent the startling amount of worker accidents that have been happening. Most recently, four workers were crushed to death and two others were injured when a 10-ton crane crashed into another crane during a heavy rainstorm. In March, seven workers were buried when the railway construction site in Jiangsu collapsed. Are worker deaths this frequent in other parts of the world too? Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

All hail the Beijing-Shanghai railway! The bullet train runnin' monstrosity, which will cut the commute between China's two biggest cities down from 10 hours to four, is on the track for completion in 2011 and for operation by 2012. Already, its projected to be one of the busiest and most profitable railways in China... nay, the world! As proof, an official said that a similar high-speed line, the Beijing to Tianjin route, sells out over 70% of its tickets and will recover the cost of building in about 16 years. Besides being able to rub its profitability in Amtrack's face, we couldn't give a hoot about the finances. We're just excited that we'll be able to take by-train day trips to Beijing in the near future. more ›