Amid corruption charges, the cause of the July 23 collision of two high-speed trains in Wenzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, China, remains under investigation, with speculation ranging from signal failure, design flaw or human error to, even, lightning strikes. The crash on the Beijing-Nanjing line resulted in 40 dead and hundreds injured.
The announcement to recall 54 bullet trains was made in August, and other high-speed rail projects have been halted. The speed limit for all trains on the high-speed network was reduced to 186 mph (upper limits previously ranged from speeds such as 145 to 268 mph, depending on the area).
On Sept. 27 in Shanghai, a subway train crashed into a stopped train in a station, injuring 271 people. The crash was caused by signal failure (on a system run by the same company used for the high-speed rail signals). The crash occurred on Line 10, which opened in 2010 and is one of the newest lines in the city’s subway system. It was the third system failure in two months on Line 10.