China’s Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has urged the nation’s railway departments to step up efforts to promote safe railway transport.
Further, priority should be placed on ensuring the safety of the country’s high-speed railway in the next five years, Zhang told a national railway conference. This is, perhaps, the first time that official notice has been made of the fact that high speed railways need stringent safety precautions.
Zhang ordered authorities to work at improving the technology and making the railway technology internationally competitive.
In 2010, 1.68 billion passenger journeys were conducted through the nation’s railways, up 9.9% year on year, according to data from the Ministry of Railways.
English.news.cn reported that Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun said the total length of the country’s railways had reached 91,000 km by 2010, and the railways would reach 120,000 km in five years.
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