Normal traffic to resume

Source: CCTV.com | 01-28-2008 13:38

An unprecedented cold spell hitting central and southern China is posing serious problems for China's annual Spring Festival peak travel season.

Heavy snow, rain and the freezing weather has disrupted electricity supplies along several sections of the country's Beijing-Guangzhou railway line.Hundreds of trains have been delayed, with tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

On Friday night, heavy snow downed high-voltage power lines along the Hengyang-Zhuzhou section of the Beijing-Guangzhou railway line. The damage stopped electricity passenger trains along the southern part of the artery line in their tracks. More than 300 trains have since been delayed, stranding huge numbers of travellers. At Guangzhou Railway station alone, over 100,000 passengers have been delayed or forced to cancel their travel plans.

A traveller said, "We are very anxious to get back home, but the railway station staff are keen to resume normal service as soon as possible. They've been working day in, day out, to deal with the matter. I can understand how hard it is."

The Ministry of Railways has sent more than 100 diesel locomotives to pull trains from affected lines and help stranded travellers transfer to other routes. In the meantime, more than 10,000 workers are repairing power lines, to ensure rail services are up and running again as soon as possible.

Wabg Yongping, spokesman of Ministry of Railways,said, "We will try our best to prevent the reoccurrence of power disruptions along railway lines. Normal railway service is expected to resume within one or two days."

As a result of the chaos on the railways, many travellers have decided to hit the roads. The Beijing-Zhuhai expressways, which runs parallel to the Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, has seen a huge increase in traffic. Adverse weather is still affecting the section that runs through Shaoguan and over 10,000 cars and buses were stranded.

Several planes in the south of the country have also been grounded. On Sunday, the airports in Wuhai and Guiyang were closed for half a day because the runways were covered by snow and ice. The airports in Changsha, Nanchang, Hefei and Nanjing all had similar stories. Normal flights will not resume at these airports until later today. On Saturday, Guangzhou Beiyun Airport experienced the worst flights delay in ten years, with more than 10,000 travellers delayed.

There's better news in Beijing where service at Capital Airport remains steady. The General Administration of Civil Aviation is providing airlines with weather updates so they can readjust their schedules if necessary to fly passengers out when the weather is better.

Editor:Zhang Ning