Technicians keep trains running smoothly during travel rush

Technicians inspect the undercarriage of a train at a maintenance base in Jinan, Shandong province. (Photo provided to CHINA DAILY)

While many Chinese people prepare themselves for the Spring Festival break, teams of maintenance workers across the country are hard at work ensuring the nation's vast train network runs without a hitch over the busy travel period.

Each evening during the travel rush, which officially began on Jan 14, the six tracks at a train maintenance base operated by China Railway Jinan Group Co host a lineup of high-speed trains awaiting thorough examinations after a day's service. The maintenance base in Jinan, Shandong province, is brightly lit, with technicians bustling around to prepare the trains for their upcoming journeys.

"During the Spring Festival travel rush our workload has surged by 25 percent," said Tian Yu, a technician at the maintenance base.

At around 6 pm, a train rolls into the base, signaling the start of the night shift for the technicians.

"Each train undergoes a three-hour inspection by a team of six ground maintenance technicians," said Tian.

"We check critical components such as anti-skid systems, basic braking devices and electrical installations, ensuring that no potential issues go unnoticed," he said.

The technicians' tasks are coordinated through a central control system at the dispatch center, equipped with 12 high-definition screens for real-time monitoring to streamline operations.

Before moving to the maintenance tracks, the trains undergo an initial check by an intelligent fault diagnosis system.

Any issues identified by the intelligent equipment are manually rechecked by maintenance technicians, who then conduct detailed and thorough inspections of the train components to uphold maintenance quality.