Did you make it to Fuzhou on D3101? I think I'd have bailed out at YongJia Station and looked for alternate transportation to Fuzhou.

They wouldn't allow anybody off the train.

All total it was just over 3 hour delay and my train was not the longest delayed. Looking at the arrival / departure board, some mention almost four hours delay.

I guess the frusterating part of it was the lack of information. Not a single report except this is "temporary delay".

I really wish I took the long distance bus.

Interesting piece, thanks for sharing. I saw a smaller version of this (not as good) in the NYT.

Oh my. I suppose one tactic that might have worked is to start spreading a rumor that another train was coming down the track and not able to stop, then grab for the emergency hammer and start breaking windows. Likely that you'd have a crowd following suit, with no way for the train staff to stop a thousand determined escapees.

I hear you on the bus option, though. Or maybe the slow trains, which at least have a lot more escape options....er...multiple stop options.

my latest train experience....D train to Qingdao from Tianjin was delayed, and stopped several times...no clarity

the result: my girlfriend worrying....and insisting that we take the T train back in a hard seat for 9 hours

the experience wasn't all that bad...it made me realize that China definitely needs more slow trains, because there were at least 50 people standing up in each of the cars the whole time....

If one were to increase their wages by 13% per year over the next 5 years, many of them would presumably spring for D/G trains. BTW, "T" (特快) was the top of the line just ~7 years ago.

I feel the same way as your girlfriend.

At least you will get there and you know what time you will get there.

The last few trips I have been on with the D trains, being late a few minutes isn't a big deal but being late 3 hours is a big pain.

There are many parts of China where T trains are still top of the line. Or even K trains! I think it will be this way for a long time to come.

Even in relatively wealthy East/coastal China, I think there are a lot of Chinese who could...but would rather not...spend up to the D/G fare. For a personal trip, I'd rather spend RMB 320 for overnight hard sleeper in T than RMB 700 for a day seat in G or sleeper in D. (Business trip might be different choice.) And right now, the reliability factor of the old-style trains is more comforting than the Time Schedule Roulette on the HSR network. Of note, the D trains were running fine and on schedule on the BJ-SH route, until they started up the G service. Now anything on that track is subject to getting boogered up.

Its a one hour flight, with tickets as low as 50USD one way.
Why take a 9 hour train?

Yes...that's what I told her....the tickets were 100+ tax
But the train tickets were 15$

Fun experience having everyone stare at me for 8 hours, but surprisingly it was 20 minutes early to Tianjin and the food was better than those awful CRH baozi - i'd do it again

Slow trains are still one of the cheapest mode of transportation in China.

Slow I meant the no alphabets, K and T trains.

Trains are even cheaper than buses sometimes.

Today purchased a couple of D tickets from TZ to WZ. When we arrived at the station, found out all the trains are late by 80-120 minutes.

Therefore our 21:30 ride will be arriving very late. Then the station master said "Anybody that has a ticket, just get on, find a seat." "In fact the whole front end of the train is totally empty"

So we actually got on the 19:50 ride which was over a hour late.

We thought ok, that is great however the train kept stopping. We are talking sudden jerky stops. It was very disconcerting. The last let of my trip from YongJia station to WZ was crawling.

This is getting stupid.

I do think everyone in the MOR is sensing the acute danger of an execution squad in case something happens again. So "keeping and building face" takes priority over passenger interests, at least until the "safety campaign" ordered by the party is over.

Obviously there are some serious problems. No wonder the passenger loads are down. Another accident waiting to happen?

With a large amount of the HSR on elevated tracks, it doesn't take much if any speed in a collision to
derail a train and consequently the carriages fall 50 or more feet.

The WSJ has articles everyday since the crash. They are staying on the story,
especially from the financial impact POV.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...n_AboveLEFTTop