Doubt clouds train crash story

BEIJING – Public criticism grew Tuesday in China over the government’s explanation for the weekend crash of two high-speed trains that killed at least 39 people and injured more than 190.

The brewing dissatisfaction offered a rare challenge to China’s reputation for being able to build massive infrastructure at a rapid clip.

The high-speed rail system is planned to reach some 10,000 miles by 2020, and spending reportedly has reached $100 billion a year – a grand project meant to convey the nation’s rise as a regional and world power.

Instead, after the accident Saturday, when one train rear-ended another, the government was forced to announce a full investigation and then on Tuesday to unveil a two-month, nationwide safety review of its railways.

Those measures did little to silence discontent, however. Some Chinese who are following the situation expressed doubts about the official explanation for the accident, that a freak lightning strike caused the lead train to stall, setting up a following train to plow into it. Others have asked: Even if that was the case, why wasn’t the second train signaled to stop?

Beyond the specifics of the crash Saturday night in the coastal province of Zhejiang, there are broader concerns about corruption and mismanagement that have come to plague the Chinese Railways Ministry. Its former head, Liu Zhijun, was removed from his job in February after accusations that he’d taken kickbacks of more than $122 million.

Suspicions that the bullet trains are at times unreliable were buttressed Tuesday when state media confirmed that more than 20 trains running on the brand-new Beijing to Shanghai route were delayed Monday because of power failures.