LOCAL travel agents are now advising clients to fly or take regular trains, especially on the Beijing-Shanghai route, after a high-speed train accident on July 23 left 39 dead in Wenzhou.
“We are currently not having anyone take the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train,” said Nancy Tan, a spokesperson for Wild China, a Beijing-based company. “We believe there is a need for an increased amount of safety and a higher service standard.”
Two hundred people were also injured in the two-train collision on the Ningbo and Wenzhou line, less than three weeks after service began on the Beijing-Shanghai line. China’s Railway Ministry has not given a complete explanation of the accident, but says it occurred after one train suffered a power outage due to lighting and a second train crashed into it, derailing eight cars and sending four off a 50-foot bridge.
“We will be reminding our clients about the accident and suggesting that they fly instead of using the high-speed train for the rest of this year,” said Dandan Zhong, executive director at VariArts Travel Group, a Beijing-based DMC. “I believe the government will do something about it, so we will see how it is at the end of the year.
Train travel on the line was supposed to be cut into half, but even before the accident, Tan said that the trip often took up to eight hours. “Even before the accident, we were telling travellers to hold off because of the delays,” she said.
By Maggie Rauch
