The terrible railway accident of the Chinese high-speed railway (or CRH) at Wenzhou, China, and the actions made by the railway authorities to cover up the accident have triggered massive criticisms inside and outside of China. Since last year, Mr. Kasai, the chairman of Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tokai), and Mr. Yamada, its president, have been ardent critics of CRH, accusing them for "stealing technology", "stressing speed at the sacrifice of safety", and so on. The Chinese side explained these criticisms were out of Japanese businesses' fear for losing their overseas customers to their Chinese rivals.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kasai's warnings have proved true. Now it is the Chinese railway industry which will lose its overseas customers.
In August 2011, within a month after the accident, I got on the CRH twice. The Chinese people did not seem to be so worried about its safety. One reason for this may be because the Chinese railway authorities decided to lower the maximum speed of the CRH. But, after experiencing the high-speed railway I think the Chinese railway authorities are too much obsessed by the speed of the train itself, taking little care about the speed of the journey as a whole.
I took a train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou. I arrived at Shenzhen station at around 3:35 pm. There were long queues in front of the ticket windows, but I managed to get my ticket at 3:45 pm. I didn't ask for a particular train number, but the girl at the window sold me a ticket for a train departing at 4:09 pm with a seat reservation. Then I went on to the line waiting for security check. (In China, you must go through security checks before you get on trains.) But line moved very slow. It turned out that only one check machine out of two was working at the station. When I finally got in the station, the 4:09 pm train had already left, so I had to get on the train which departed Shenzhen at 4:20 pm, without seat reservation. In total, I had to spend 45 minutes at the station before the departure of the high-speed train. What is the use of high speed, when it takes so much time before getting on the train?
Compare with what you experience in Japan. When you want to get on the Japanese high-speed train, or Shinkansen, at Tokyo station, you must arrive at the station only ten minutes before the departure of the train you want to get on. You can buy your ticket either at the vending machine or at the window in a few minutes, unless you are very unlucky. So if we compare the speed of the trains themselves, then the Chinese CRH may be faster, but if we compare the speed of the whole journey, then the Japanese system will take you to your final destination more rapidly.
I want to propose the leaders of the Japanese railway industry: stop condemning the CRH. Just invite the foreign decision makers to Japan and China and let them buy their tickets by their own and experience train trips in both countries. They will realize the difference.
