China bullet trains to resume operation after recall

BEIJING: Fifty-four bullet trains recalled after a deadly high-speed rail accident in China are to resume operation on the new Beijing-Shanghai line after being "modified", state media said Monday.

The Chinese manufacturer of the trains recalled them over safety concerns weeks after July's crash in the eastern city of Wenzhou killed at least 40 people and injured nearly 200, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The recalled trains were not the same model as those involved in the Wenzhou crash, but the move was part of a huge overhaul of the country's high-speed train network following the accident, which sparked widespread public fury.

China has developed its vast transport network at lightning speed, building the world's largest high-speed rail system from scratch in less than a decade.

But the government has been accused of overlooking safety in its rush to develop and in the weeks following the July crash, the government announced a halt to new train projects.

"After a three-month process of modifications and repeated tests, previously reported problems with the CRH 380BL trains have all been fixed," Xinhua quoted an unnamed railways ministry official as saying.

"Operations will gradually resume, starting from Wednesday. If everything goes well, all the recalled trains will resume service by December 6."

The heavily promoted new bullet train service between Beijing and Shanghai was launched in June amid much fanfare, but has been plagued by technical glitches and power cuts, with less than a third of seats sold on some services.

The problems on the Beijing-Shanghai route added to the problems facing China's railways ministry, already under a cloud for a corruption scandal that saw the removal of its boss earlier this year. (AFP)