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The head of Bombardier Inc.'s Chinese unit says the country's massive expansion of high-speed rail is putting pressure on companies to deliver railcars much faster than industry norms.

In a 45-minute interview in the company's headquarters in a landmark, American-designed skyscraper in central Beijing, Zhang Jianwei said he expects Bombardier's business to be unaffected by a temporary freeze on Chinese high-speed rail projects following a major train accident near Wenzhou last month that killed 40 people.

But he acknowledged the freeze is crucial to ensure the program's safety and said he would like to see a deeper investigation into the crash, which is presently being conducted by a 22-member panel comprised mainly of government officials. Earlier this month two Ministry of Railways officials were removed from that panel and more industry experts added, a rare concession to public pressure for a more independent review.

"China's central leaders have paid big attention. They reacted very rapidly. The minister, the vice minister, the vice premier immediately went to the site, very rapidly. And they still now are making an investigation," Mr. Zhang said. "An independent investigation, this means no people from MOR [Ministry of Railways]should be part of the investigation. It's different, with professors, experts from other ministries.

"For sure today the biggest issue is safety. The first priority is safety. I think the technology in China today is very advanced. I don't think the technology is a problem. [The slowdown is]just to be more prudent, more careful, to take more care."

On the night of July 23, a train built by Bombardier Sifang – Bombardier's Chinese joint venture – stalled on a viaduct near Wenzhou in the middle of a thunderstorm, possibly after a lightning strike knocked out power. The next high-speed train along, travelling an estimated 200 to 250 km per hour, didn't stop. Investigators have said that Chinese-made signalling equipment on the track failed to warn its crew.

The impact forced four cars – two from the front train and two from the rear – off the track, plunging to the ground 20 metres below. Aerial photos of the cordoned-off and heavily guarded site showed three cars crumpled on the ground. The fourth dangled precariously off the viaduct and came to a rest in a near-vertical position with one end resting on the ground.

Mr. Zhang, who that night was on a business trip in the Chinese port city of Qingdao – home to Bombardier Sifang's main manufacturing plant – said he started receiving phone calls almost immediately.

"[Initially]we didn't know who was responsible, what was the problem," he said. His company's engineers were dispatched but not allowed onsite because of the accident investigation. "The whole night I didn't sleep, I was just waiting there … Very quickly they said the train was not a problem. But for us, train problem or not, the feeling was very bad."

The cars remaining on the track were towed to a depot for investigation the next morning. The four derailed cars were broken up by heavy machinery and buried at the site, in what authorities said was necessary to safeguard the technology but what Chinese Internet commentators – a lively bunch, despite the country's broad-reaching Internet censorship efforts – have panned as an effort at cover-up.

Mr. Zhang would say only that police experts advised burying the mangled cars rather than winching them back up onto the viaduct for further transport.

The crash came as China's railways ministry was already struggling with its image. Its former minister, Liu Zhijun, is in prison on charges of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars. China has pledged to extend its high-speed rail network to 16,000 kilometres by 2020, at a cost of more than $300-billion, but that program is now on hold for a massive safety review.

The ministry's celebrated high-speed line between Shanghai and Beijing, which opened to much fanfare in late June after just three years of construction, has had its schedule reduced and its trains slowed. Another Chinese rail major, CNR Corp., has recalled 54 brand new bullet trains and is delaying the delivery of others for a safety evaluation. The Chinese government has sacked three senior railway officials and reassigned the ministry spokesman to a post in Warsaw, Poland.

Still, at home and abroad, the program has been accused of doing too much, too fast, with the July 23 crash cited as evidence.

"I think after this accident, the Chinese government is rethinking how to develop high-speed rail. I think this is a result of the Great Leap Forward of high-speed rail. China will reconsider the speed standard for all the projects under construction," said Zhao Jian, a professor of economics at Beijing Jiaotong University.

Among the issues, Bombardier's Mr. Zhang said, is pressure on companies to deliver rail cars quickly, to accommodate ambitious timelines.

"In general for a train to be produced you need two, three or four years. We sign an order, you need two or three years to start to deliver. But here it's so fast. The Chinese companies … after they sign an order, they start to deliver the train in several months. For us, this is a challenge we have to follow," he said. "Before we sign an order, before we sign a contract we do not start production, that's why it takes a long time. In China, some of the Chinese companies, before they even sign an order they start [production]"

But has Chinese rail developed too fast for comfort?

"It's very difficult to say," he said. "China needs for its economy to develop very rapidly, and to match its economic development it needs the railway."

Still, Mr. Zhang is optimistic that the slowdown is a "temporary adjustment" and said he has been given no directives to slow or stop delivery of the contracts already under way, most notably the $4-billion contract Bombardier Sifang signed in 2009 for 80 Zefiro 380 very high-speed trains, and another signed in 2010 to deliver 40 high-speed trains. Delivery on the 2009 deal is expected to start next year. Bombardier has also signed 16 contracts in China this year for propulsion systems and other components.

"The Chinese government is taking time for a temporary adjustment," he said. "I believe China will continue to develop the railway, because the railway in China plays a very important role."

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