China's rail network has suffered a blow as a section of high-speed track - due to go into full operation in May in central Hubei province - collapsed following heavy rain. It had already undergone test runs. [Australia Network News] more ›

The State Administration of Work Safety has informed the press that the probe report will be released soon on the website of the official Xinhua News Agency. However, the safety watchdog did not tell the exact date of the report's release, only saying that it won't be "long". more ›

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As the grand game of push-the-blame taichi continues, the ball has now fallen in the court of the Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication Co Ltd, whose railway signals equipment is now being blamed for the Wenzhou train collision. more ›

A rare and titillating show of confrontation between a local government and central government forces played out soon after the high-profile Wenzhou train collision. And if sentiment on Sina Weibo is anything to go by, it's Wenzhou Government 1: Ministry of Railways 0. more ›

In a move approved by a committee set up by the State Council to investigate the Wenzhou high-speed rail crash, train compartments have been hastily transported away from the crash site to the Wenzhou West train station "for further research". more ›

Many of the journalists working on the Wenzhou train crash story are finding it hard to believe the railway ministry's denials that it's burying train bodies and parts to hide the truth. more ›

This purported video of the Wenzhou train collision has been burning up the internets since it was first uploaded onto the video-sharing site, Youku. A large part of the video shows us what weather conditions were like that day -- it was raining heavily and cars were travelling slowly on the flooded streets. In the last few seconds, we see a train moving (presumably the D301 that rear-ended the D3115), a few bright sparks, and then shouts of disbelief. No lightning was visible in the video, so If this video is indeed what it claims to be, then it is clear proof that the Ministry of Railways was lying about the collision having been caused by a lightning. We'll be waiting to hear from the video forensic experts on this one. more ›

Not unexpected: "China Eastern Airlines led share rallies of China's three air giants in the Hong Kong market by gaining 4.76 percent to close at HK$3.96 (51 US cents) yesterday. Air China rose 3.59 percent to HK$8.08 and China Southern Airlines rose 3.4 percent to HK$5.17. The increase bucked the downward trend of the Hang Seng Index, which closed down 0.7 percent at 22,293.3 points." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

The Ministry of Railways has finally apologised for the catastrophic high-speed rail collision in Wenzhou. more ›

WARNING: The following video contains images that you may find disturbing. Proceed at your own risk. 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 ›

"FOUR bullet trains from Shanghai to Nanjing were canceled yesterday due to a sudden rainstorm in Nanjing, said the railway operator. The Shanghai-Beijing high-speed line was not affected, authorities said. The Shanghai-Nanjing operator said 430 passengers were impacted as the operations on trains G7026, G7078, G7158 and G7164 were stopped by late in the afternoon. The heavy rainfall in Nanjing hit the track area by 4pm, leaving water and crimping the operation, said officials. Passengers were transferred to other trains, said Shanghai railway station officials. Emergency workers were making fixes to the affected track before the full operation resumed, said the operator." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

If you're still looking for those 400RMB Shanghai-Beijing air tickets and can't find them, look no further. They do not exist anymore. more ›

The ultra-modern, best of the best, spickity span high-tech Shanghai-Beijing Bullet train is now once again mired in controversy. more ›

Chinese and foreign journalists were treated by the railway ministry two days ago to a test drive of the brand new Beijing-Shanghai line, now the world's longest high speed railway. CNN managed to snag the following cockpit view which the rest of us hoi polloi will probably never be able to see:
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The thrill is gone, the dream has died (however, the non-VIP seats we showed you yesterday are staying): "Luxury VIP suites on the forthcoming Shanghai-Beijing High Speed Railway are to be removed and more standard seats installed in their place. The planned VIP suites had attracted heavy criticism from passengers complaining about high ticket prices and the difficulty of buying even standing tickets during the annual Spring Festival rush. Such luxury suites, charging more than 2,000 yuan (US$308) a ticket, appeared on bullet trains between Shanghai and cities in Sichuan Province in January. The suites did not prove popular." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Sorry guys, there will be no super fast connection to Guangzhou in the near future. Rumours of the high speed railway line between Guangzhou and Shanghai being launched in July have just been disclaimed by Guangzhou Railway (Group) Corporation. The speedy seven-hour connection to China's first developed city is still under construction, and the completion date unknown, as Sun Zhang, a transport professor with Tongji University, has told Global Times Sunday. Still, this is just a minor setback for China's existing, planned and under-construction high-speed rail network - check that amazing feat here. more ›

"Local media reports that construction of the Kunming to Singapore high speed railway is expected to start in April 2011 and to to be completed in 2020. Following the completion of the line, it will take only ten hours to travel by rail between the two destinations. Initially the line will start from Kunming, run through Mohan and Wanrong, and end in Vientiane, Laos. Construction has already started on the Mohan railway logistics center. According to the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network, this is part of the Trans-Asian Railway's Southeast Asia network. It will extend to Bangkok in Thailand, run through Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and end in Singapore. The completed line will be 3,900 kilometers long." [Global Times via Sina] 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 ›

Over 2.3 billion passenger trips are expected to be made via land and water transport over the 40 days of the Lunar New Year season. 188 million trips are expected to be made via railway alone, up 8% from last year. As a result of the global economic crisis which saw many factories going under all over China, waves and waves of migrant workers started going home much earlier this year. Where these people will travel to after the Spring Festival remains a big question mark because most of these people still do not know where their next job will be. more ›

• A man and a woman have been killed by a carbon monoxide leak in a downtown Shanghai apartment yesterday morning while two of theirr roommates remain in a coma.
• Taiwan is coordinating with mainland authorities on the possibility of increasing the number of charter flights to and from Shanghai for the convenience of Taiwanese residents looking to go home during the Lunar New Year season.
• North Carolina has opened its seventh foreign trade office in Shanghai. This is the state's second China trade office after Hong Kong.

China Daily: Survivors recount pre-dawn nightmare more ›

Video: France24 report of China's fight against piracy. more ›

Photo from Jake in Shanghai more ›