Traffic on railways interrupted by Monday's powerful southwest China earthquake had all resumed by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, except on the Baoji-Chengdu railway, said the Ministry of Railways.

The Baoji-Chengdu railway was still cut by a landslide in a tunnel in Huixian County, Gansu Province, as well as some bridge displacements and damage to the line, said Ministry of Railways spokesman Wang Yongping.

More than 1,000 workers were repairing the damaged rail line, but it was unknown when traffic would resume, said the Xi'an Railway Bureau.

The tunnel collapse resulted in a blaze on a 40-car freight train, which included 13 tankers full of gasoline, on Monday.

The train was still burning on Tuesday, 25 hours after it derailed and caught fire. Local authorities said fire-fighters, who had moved six kilometers away from the site fearing the tankers could explode, had resumed work to extinguish the fire.

A field team to oversee railway repairs has been set up to organize the repair work and coordinate rescue efforts, with Lu Chunfang, Vice Minister of Railways, as the head.

A total of 180 trains had been left stranded on lines leading to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, due to multiple landslides and collapses near Chengdu following the 7.8-magnitude quake.

Wang said earlier that 787 passengers aboard train K291 from Shanghai to Chengdu on the Baoji-Chengdu railway had been moved to 20 minibuses on Tuesday morning.

(China Daily/Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2008)