The Ministry of Railways has issued an online apology for the 3 delays in the last 5 days on the newly-built Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway.

Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping, during a web-chat, admits the high speed rail line is still too young to be problem free.

Power failures halted nearly 20 trains on Sunday and almost 30 others on Tuesday.

Bad weather is being blamed for causing the equipment failure.

The Railway's ministry is stressing that the power cut is a self-protection mechanism, to ensure that if there are any problems, the trains won't be put in danger.

The Ministsry is also promising a better reaction in dealing with future problems, particularly when it comes to customer service.

Sun Zhang, a researcher with Tongji University, is suggesting the Ministry may have jumped the gun in launching the new Beijing to Shanghai link.

"It is not supposed to be this quick to put the train in operation after the new model is finished. The run-in period should not be avoided. Frankly, the new train is still in its run-in period," Sun said.

Sun Zhang also contends there will be less problems if passengers can get more information.

The railway has been in operation for just over half a month, and is designed to halve the train trip between the two cities to less than five hours.

(CRIENGLISH.com July 14, 2011)