30 August 2006
Golmud-Lhasa train derails
(Reuters) One of China's new trains on the Golmud-Lhasa railway, has derailed. The 16-carriage train from the south-western city of Chongqing derailed some 400km northeast of Lhasa, the Beijing News said, adding that only the dining carriage came off the tracks in the accident. "Six trains were delayed along the line, affecting more than 4,000 passengers", Hong Kong's Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper said. Trains were running normally five hours later and no one was injured, it said, adding that an equipment failure involved switches and signals; nevertheless the accident comes as an embarrassment to the Chinese authorities coming barely two months after the line officially opened.