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The fatal crash between two high-speed trains on July 23 on a viaduct near Wenzhou on the Ningbo - Xiamen line, in which 40 people died and 191 were injured, has had major repercussions for railway operations and safety in China. With the results of the investigation into the accident yet to be announced, David Briginshaw examines the chain of events that followed.

SERIOUS railway accidents often have repercussions well beyond the immediate cause. Their rarity - reflecting the generally high standard of railway safety - usually points to some wider deficiency. This is certainly the case with the fatal crash near Wenzhou, China, on July 23. The world’s first fatal accident on a dedicated high-speed line was bound to attract attention, but it came only three weeks after the opening of the world’s longest high-speed railway, the 1318km Beijing - Shanghai line, which itself has been the subject of significant press reporting due to poor reliability.

In the midst of criticism of rail’s environmental credentials from the road freight industry, the Australasian Railway Association is fighting back, as Kevin Smith discovers.

SWEDEN's national passenger operator SJ made a loss of SKr 140m ($US 22.2m) in the first half of this year compared with a profit of SKr 220m for the first half of 2010. However, SJ's second quarter results look a little better as it made a pre-tax profit of SKr 94m, although this is a lot worse than its 2010 second-quarter profit of SKr 340m. First-half consolidated net sales dropped from SKr 4.3bn in 2010 to SKr 3.9bn this year.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) has taken a 26% stake in Rail Holding, which owns Westbahn, Austria's first private open-access passenger operator. At the same Rail Holding has increased its share capital.

FREIGHT trains have started running on the new 75km railway from Hairatan in Uzbekistan to Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. This is the first rail link between the two countries and is part of a strategy to develop a rail network in Afghanistan with connections to its neighbours.

PLANS to upgrade the Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York, and Washington have received a boost with the news that the United States Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has allocated nearly $US745m to improve key sections of the line.

TURKEY's prime minister, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, transport minister Mr Binali Yildirim, and the general manager of Turkish State Railways (TCDD) Mr Suleyman Karaman officially opened today the high-speed line linking the capital Ankara with Konya. Passenger services, comprising four trips a day initially, will start tomorrow with a journey time of 1h 30min initially, reducing to 1h 15min when the track beds in.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) made a net profit of Roubles 48.5bn ($US 1.75bn) between January and June this year, a fall of 17.1% compared with the first half of 2010. While overall income in the first half increased by 10% to Roubles 644.7bn and freight revenue rose by 7.8% to Roubles 498.7bn, passenger income dropped by 90% to Roubles 3.3bn. This was partly due to First Passenger Company starting operations on April 1 and suburban rail subsidiaries taking over virtually all suburban services on January 1.

TRANSPORT for London has awarded a £16.3m contract to Stadler to supply six Variobahn low-floor air-conditioned LRVs for operation on the Croydon Tramlink light rail network. The first vehicle will be delivered by the end of the year and will enter service in spring 2012, with the remaining five vehicles following later.