A Financial Times report suggests that China has slammed the brakes on its investment in high-speed trains.
In year-to-date terms, investment in railways and transport had been up 7 per cent in the first half of 2011. By the end of September, it was down 19 per cent, says the report quoting official data.
The slowdown started since two bullet trains crashed in July and the railway minister was dismissed on corruption charge in February.
The sudden halt has led to “system-wide whiplash”, leaving workers without pay, heavy machinery sitting idle and setting back plans for bullet trains that were meant to carry forward the nation's future. After receiving a bounty of Government cash for years, the sudden shortage is new and uncomfortable for China's tight-knit railway industry.
The country's first bullet train only started running in 2007. But within four years, China had developed the world's largest high-speed network.
The boom was supposed to roll on for another decade at least, with plans to double the length of its high-speed rail lines by 2020. But confidence has faltered, the report adds.