employing about 2 million people, will form the backbone of CRC. Earlier this year, Mr Sheng Guangzu, China’s last railway minister who is now CRC’s general manager, confirmed that there will be no lay-offs.
Most institutions formerly under MOR, such as the railway research institute and railway publishing house, will merge into CRC. However, CRC has not taken on MOR’s security, court of law, and procurator functions. Nearly four fifths of MOR’s 900 civil servants will transfer to CRC. Many of them are likely to give up their job status, because they will have better
IRJ August 2013
benefits and development opportunities as company employees. SRA will be responsible for formulating railway technical standards, overseeing railway safety and service quality, and ensuring that railway projects are implemented according to the required standards. SRA will have a staff of 130 civil servants, drawn largely from MOR. SRA’s director general is Mr Lu Dongfu, a former MOR vice-minister. Four deputy directors general have also been named. SRA will take over responsibility for some of MOR’s overseas activities such as its seat on the Organisation for Railway Cooperation (OSJD), where Mr Wang Yongping, the controversial former MOR spokesman, is working as Chinese commissioner. SRA was expected to begin operations in June, but preparations are behind schedule, and the new organisation has yet to be officially launched. The embryonic SRA remains in the former MOR building, together with CRC, and may stay there for a couple of years before moving to another site. SRA will report to MOC, but sources within MOC say they do not know much about the organisation yet, as it has not been inaugurated, and MOC has little railway experience. So far it is not clear which office will deal with railway affairs. MOC sources say the ministry has no idea at this stage about how to perform the duties entrusted to it. Indeed, its future relationship with SRA and CRC are enveloped in a mist. CRC reports directly to the State Council, and its general manager is de facto a minister-level official, and of the same seniority as the MOC chief, but superior to the SRA director general. This makes it questionable as to how effective MOC and SRA will be in supervising and regulating CRC. Incorporation of the railway sector into MOC is part of the reform scheme aimed at building up a comprehensive national transport system. With simultaneous handing down of power by the central government, overall planning is expected to make railway construction more economic, with better use of human and material resources. The government expects railway operations to become more efficient, with stricter work standards set and policed by SRA, and improved services.
However, Professor Wang Mengshu
from Beijing Jiaotong University, who is also chief engineer of China Railway Tunnel Group, and a rare, outspoken
Sheng Guangzu says CRC is an enterprise now rather than a government department, and will follow the market to seek economic benefits.
voice in China, said centralised management proved the greatest driving force in China’s bullish railway development. The breakup of MOR may lead to a host of problems such as rocketing ticket prices, putting them on a par with air fares, as well as operational safety concerns and a slowdown in investment.
“Reform is justified if it is beneficial to the people and helpful to boosting national strength. Otherwise, there should be no reform,” says Wang Mengshu.
By the end of 2012, China had 98,000km of conventional railways and 9356km of high-speed lines in operation. Compared with its population of some 1.3bn people, the rail networks’ per capita share roughly equates to the length of a cigarette. The government’s target for 2020 is to
increase the network to 120,000km. This year Yuan 650bn ($US 105.9bn) has been raised for railway fixed-asset investment, which includes Yuan 520bn to build 5200km of new lines. Earlier this year, when he was still minister of railways, Sheng Guangzu said all railway investment and construction would go on as planned, but in future the government will fund railways built for social reasons, while
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Photo: Chen Jianli, Xinhua
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