An estimated 300 million passengers nationwide will be travelling by train, and over half of them will ride high-speed ones. At speeds of over 300 kilometers an hour, there's no margin for mechanical breakdown. CCTV reporter Hu Nan visited the world's biggest high-speed railway maintenance base to find out how passenger safety is ensured.
Time to go home. The Shanghai Hongqiao maintenance center is a "home" for the high-speed trains.
Nighttime gets busy here as about 70 sets of trains are waiting for maintenance check. At least 2.5 hours are needed for each set.
The mandatory body-check comes after 4,000 kilometers of travel -- or 48 hours on rails.
Shanghai railway section takes one third of the nation's high-speed railway carriages. During the 40-day spring festival travel rush, an estimated 8 million passengers will be travelling by high-speed railways… their safety is the priority for the mechanics working here.
Gong Yufeng is among the first batch of high-speed railway carriage inspectors since 2008. Tonight, his team of 4 inspectors will be checking 5 sets of trains.
The first one turns out to be a troublemaker.
"The lubricating oil for the axial bearing wheel gear box is creaming...the low temperature might be the reason. We have to drain the oil from all axial bearings of this carriage, keep samples for further examination, and replace it with good oil," Gong said.
This problem -- even though a minor one -- takes them 2 extra hours. And given the Spring Festival travel rush... the mechanics have limited time for offline reparation. But the good news is -- this set of carriages is good to hit the trails tomorrow!
The Shanghai high-speed railway section is the first and the biggest in China. Nearly half of its 540 sets of carriages are sent to 7 subordinated maintenance bases every day.
"I walk at least 6 or 7 kilometer every night on shift...I have to go back and forth like 3 times to complete the checking procedure, and 4 to 5 trains a night. And that's the minimum distance when nothing goes wrong," Gong said.
Over 70 percent of departures from Shanghai railway stations are high-speed railway lines, an increase of 30 percent year-on-year. Safety and convenience make it the first choice of passengers, especially those who'll come home for the holidays.
