The High speed train accident in China is deeply troubling. When I first went to China in 1992 ,the railway systems were old, poorly maintained, and although generally safe, nowhere close to the levels of safety we would have expected in the UK. At that time in a fairly troubled and recently post Tiananmen square Beijing, accidents or incidents were stage managed and covered up by the communist party. The first train factory in Beijing is where I spent the summer of 1993 and it was like something from the 1950s, only basic work tools and almost no safety culture. I still tell the story of the failed ATO system which nearly ended my life and the life of the train driver, as the Chinese Rolling stock engineers had bypassed the emergency brakes to prevent me from applying them, as strange as this sounds it was to prevent them having to re-turn the wheels on a giant ancient lathe as my brake applications tests were causing wheel flats. It never occurred to them that these brakes were protecting us from crashing, and if it were not for the quick thinking driver we would have derailed at 60km/h and hit a brick wall. I left China in 1999 some 7 years later, and already the improvements on the railways systems were tangible. Significantly more money was being spent, and all new Signalling systems were being imported from Germany, the UK , the USA and other parts of the west. Joint ventures with all the major railway players appeared around China. Rolling Stock, Signalling, Communications equipment all being manufactured under license.
In 2007, I had a further opportunity to return to Beijing and Tianjin as I was contracted to undertake some safety testing for another UK company. Although the City had changed, although the systems had somewhat changed, the overriding feeling was that the people had remained almost the same. I have some video taken on a train test were brake testing in a tunnel in 2007, somebody was welding on a station concourse above the platform sending hot sparks of molten steel on top of our test train, it was apparently normal and happened before, it was brushed off with some giggles and hasty radio conversations. Therein lies the problem, had such a minor incident happened in the UK an investigation would have taken place, this would have lead to a change in both process and people. Part of me hopes that a tangible cause for the accident on the China high speed line is found, either a wrong side failure of the signalling equipment or some design error in the application of the system being used, whether or not the Chinese Ministry of Railways decides to share this report externally is up to them, however what I hope for more than anything is that whatever or whoever is to blame, that the Chinese railway industry at large is able to learn from this mistake and ensure that it never happens again. The UK railway industry is often blamed for being over bureaucratic, costly and wasteful, it may be all of those things, but it does listen, report, feedback and improve whenever something goes wrong, however small. China has accelerated the building of high speed and metro lines at an incredible rate in the last 10 years, but as much as systems can be bought and bridges can be built and tunnels can be dug, without ensuring the people who design, test, maintain and operate these systems are fully able to deliver in a open and safe environment with a good safety culture, it is probable that this will not be the last accident of this type.
