安全最重要 高铁降速

前段时间的动车风波，相信大家都还记忆犹新。中国决定放慢动车的速度和降低票价。同时也对中国的高速铁路系统进行全面检查，保证以后安全快速的发展。

According to the Ministry of Railways, during an initial phase, trains with a top design speed of 350 kilometers per hour will be lowered to 300 km/h, and the trains designed to run up to 250 km/h will operate at 200 km/h. Ticket prices will also be reduced.

The decision came after a bullet train crash last month in which 40 people died and nearly 200 were injured.

Shortly after the decision, The China CNR Corporation, one of the country's biggest train producers, made the decision to recall 54 high-speed trains used on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line due to safety concerns.

Han Baoming, a professor at the Beijing Jiaotong University, who has been involved in the production of Chinese High Speed trains over the past 20 years, says this decision makes sense.

"Slowing down these speeds will allow more safeguards to be put in place for Chinese high-speed trains. Also, reducing the speed can slow down the depreciation rate of both the trains and the related infrastructure, lowering the risk of accidents. It can also reduce the costs and make the ticket prices more acceptable to the general public."

Han also says, reducing the speed can make travelers feel more confident about the railways.

In fact, China has slowed its pace of high-speed train construction. At the national railway construction meeting earlier this year, China had planned to invest 700 billion yuan into railroad projects, which was later reduced to 600 billion yuan over the following months.

Professor Han thinks that although China needs to develop its high speed rail in a more stable and safe way, it won't stop its ambition.

"This reduction in train speeds is just a temporary adjustment. The long-term goal for Chinese railways is to speed up. With the development of both technology and the Chinese economy, as well as the improvements to living standards in China, train speeds will get faster and faster."

Han adds, besides the policies, the government has to guide people's expectations and help them build confidence in China's future railway construction efforts.

For CRI, I'm Zhao Yang.