How the new high-speed railway came on track

Employees of the new link have undergone extensive training to ensure that they are fully prepared to operate the system, report Hu Yongqi and Xiang Mingchao in Zhengzhou and Yang Wanli in Beijing

After graduating from Zhengzhou Railway Vocational & Technical College in 2008, Luo Fengguang joined the train division of Zhengzhou Railway Bureau to receive tuition as a maintenance inspector for bullet trains.

While his classmates were envious of his job, which is regarded as stable and well paid, in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, only Luo was fully aware of the hard work he'd undertaken to get his career started. In the first six months of the job, he memorized all the technical details of China Railways High-Speed Trains, even down to the size and positioning of every tiny screw.

Luo calls himself "a born technician" and has studied all the new engines and rolling stock on China's high-speed rail network. In 2010, he won third place in a national competition to find the best railway technicians and, after a series of rigorous training courses, he was certified as a maintenance inspector by the Ministry of Railways.

The high-speed line from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, opened on Sept 28. The trains run until 11 pm every day and are serviced overnight.

The 24-year-old has to alter his biological clock every three days because he works every second night. When his shift ends at 6 am, he grabs a quick meal before attempting to get some sleep. The next day is spent relaxing, but he often finds it difficult to sleep until 3 am, meaning that he has to take an afternoon nap before going to work for his next shift.

"If you don't sleep for a while before starting the nightshift, your brain gets fuzzy and you can't concentrate after midnight. It feels as if you're drunk," said Luo. "But it's always extremely hard to fall in sleep in the afternoon."

However, after four years of this regime, Luo has managed to overcome the transition and the timing of the shift is less of a headache.

Luo and his colleagues perform the final safety checks on the trains to ensure they are fully operational the next day. In June, the railway bureau built a workshop where the trains for the Beijing-Zhengzhou HSR, the final section of the line that opened on Dec 26, are repaired. Luo is one of 390 professionals employed at the workshop, which is located in a suburb of Zhengzhou.

Routine checks

At 7 pm, Luo and his colleagues begin inspecting the trains to search for possible mechanical malfunctions. At the workshop, four high-speed trains, each consisting of 16 cars, are ready on the section of feeder line that is connected to the main rail network. When all the checks and necessary repairs have been successfully carried out, the trains go into service at Zhengzhou Railway Station.

The silvery-white locomotives shone spotless in the bright overhead lights. When the cleaners have finished washing the trains, passersby might be reluctant to touch them and leave any fingerprints on the metal-textured bodies.

If a component has sustained damage, Luo verifies and videotapes all the procedures when the engineer installs the new part. After ensuring that the repair has been carried out correctly, Luo and the engineer both sign a safety report that is filed with the railways bureau.

All HSR trains are taken to the workshop after they have covered 4,000 km or have been in service for 48 continuous hours. When the kilometers add up to 30,000 km, the trains are taken out of service for an intensive revamp.

"When a train arrives at our workshop, the maintenance engineers check it from top to bottom, including the wheels, the upper and lower electrical circuits and the high-voltage equipment. Each train is worked on by a team of 14, which has to complete all the checks and repairs in two hours and 35 minutes," said Ma Tao, deputy director of the workshop.

The maintenance engineers test 16 wheels in 30 minutes. If they encounter any damage, the engineers are only allowed to begin repairs after receiving permission from the quality-control inspectors. On the night of Dec 20, the engineers discovered that a link connecting the wheels was close to breaking point. A quality-control inspector took two minutes to assess the damage and then gave permission for the part to be replaced. He recorded the entire process on his camera and gave the old component a number for recycling.

"Usually, small parts are more easily broken. Wheels, which are 86 cm in diameter and can last for at least six months, are replaced when the diameter reduces to 79 cm, which takes about the same time," said Luo.

Engineer Cai Quan said he walks at least 15 km every night to fix trains on a predetermined line. "My wife complains that my shoes wear out much faster than my neighbors'," he said. "But that's my job."

More than 100 cameras have been installed in the workshop to monitor all the checkups and repair procedures. Engineers swipe their cards at the entrance which bears the slogan, "Zero tolerance to technical problems", and then all their moves in the workshop can be recorded. A giant screen in the monitoring center shows which engineer is working on which train. When the engineers finish their tasks, a video is prepared to aid investigations in the event of any subsequent accidents.

Drivers are the key

The railway system has upgraded equipment and new technologies. At Zhengzhou East Railway Station, a new system has been built to verify high-speed train tickets through personal ID cards. Even if the passenger has lost their ticket, the system will still allow them to ride the train.

On the fifth floor of a building next to Zhengzhou Railway Station, new drivers practice in a lifesize simulation of a driver's cabin as the rails unfold on an enormous white screen in front of them. Once initiated, the system can offer the drivers eight courses of action to follow and provides changing routes on the screen. A speed limit is set and the drivers learn to take the appropriate course of action when the light on the panel changes color.

Guo Xiansheng, a 33-year-old who now drives the route between Zhengzhou and Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, said the system has helped him follow standard operating procedures.

"China's railway system has undergone six rises in operating speed and the equipment has been upgraded massively. Safety is still the most important aspect, and no matter what happens, humans are still the most vital factor, especially the drivers," said Li Zhenxiu, Party chief of the CRH Trains Workshop at Zhengzhou Railway Bureau.

"Drivers must fully understand how to employ the new safety apparatus to prevent accidents. Tragedies have occurred because we were not fully aware of how to control the machines and manage emergencies," he said.

Local railway bureaus were responsible for employing train drivers until 2006, when the Ministry of Railways took over the recruitment of bullet-train drivers.

Only 1,000 out of 120,000 employees at the Zhengzhou bureau met the requirements. They were required to have driven 500,000 km without an accident, and had to be younger than 40. Only 50 applicants survived the two rounds of theoretical and practical exams in Zhengzhou, and the number was then whittled down to 10 via rigorous interviews at the ministry.

A further 80 drivers were recruited from around the country to operate trains that, at the time, had a top speed of 200 km per hour, according to Li.

In the last six years, the bureau has trained 90 drivers for high-speed trains. The theoretical training for each driver costs approximately 100,000 yuan ($15,000), said Li. The bureau also sent 30 drivers to Japan and Sweden for further study in 2007.

From May to July 2006, two drivers participated in testing new trains in Qingdao, Shandong province, to pinpoint potential problems before the vehicles went into service. One year later, a further 22 drivers were trained to operate the vehicles.

"The trains were all in use until 11pm and new drivers had to wait until midnight in winter to practice," said Li. "They often had intense arguments about the details, some even became really angry. But the discussions allowed them to find more-effective ways of solving problems. Outside the class, they remained good friends."

Unlike other training courses, the teachers allowed one hour for discussions that involved every driver. Each of them was required to raise at least one query, otherwise the group wasn't allowed to leave the classroom.

"One must spend at least six years training, from rookie status to being awarded the certificate for high-speed train drivers. When a friend asked me to find his daughter a boyfriend, I had to refuse. I pointed out that our youngest driver was 27 years old, and most of them were already 30 and married," Li said with a smile.

To ensure that the drivers understood that safety is their top priority, Li and his team held 50 emergency programs to educate new recruits. Each driver was required to observe veterans driving 1,000 km, before being allowed to practice for 3,000 km. Now new drivers must have driven a high-speed train for 10,000 km. During the practice, Li's students undertook six round trips each day, from Zhengzhou to Shangqiu, 220 km east of the provincial capital.

"Drivers are not allowed to drive more than four consecutive hours and our drivers hand the train over to a replacement driver in Wuhan. By doing this, the drivers can give the job their full attention and reduce risks," said Li.

Zhang Leilong in Zhengzhou and Zhou Lihua in Wuhan contributed to this story.