The Ministry of Railways (MOR) launched the first-level emergency reaction scheme immediately after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Yushu of Qinghai Province on April 14 and set up an headquarter for quake-relief work headed by Minister Liu Zhijun to organize and instruct transportation guarantee for quake-relief work by the railway department.

Minister Liu Zhijun hurried to Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) to inspect facilities, equipments and safety of the line as well as transportation guarantee for quake relief work and make detailed deployment. MOR, QTR Company and other railway administrations have quickly organized first-aid transport of quake-relief materials and personnel.

The shortest distance between epicenter and Qinghai-Tibet Railway is 362km, which means the earthquake has little influence on railway infrastructure and both passenger and freight transportation are in good order.

At present, the railway department is trying its best to intensify examination and inspection on railway infrastructure such as tracks to ensure safety and smoothness on the line while keeping close attention on aftershocks.

Upon the occurrence of earthquake, the Ministry of Railways has requested the whole railway sector to take immediate actions, give first priority to the quake relief campaign and go all out to make sure the quake-relief materials and personnel be transported to the quake-hit area at greatest speed. For the past days, railway departments have taken the following measures:

1. Strengthening traffic command and control. On the day of the earthquake, MOR and QTR Company immediately established a command center for quake-relief and relevant officials as well as dispatchers have been conducting traffics command round the clock so as to make sure that the first-aid materials and personnel arrive the quake-hit area in a losing-no-time manner.

2. Establishing coordination mechanism. Upon the occurrence of earthquake, MOR and relevant Railway Administrations immediately worked out communication channels with the civil affairs departments and armed forces so as to obtain quake-relief transport need beforehand and manage transport transfer so as to make sure the needed materials and personnel arrive at the destination as fast as possible.

3. Dispatching first-aid trains. "Rescue" trains have been arranged, which enjoy the same priority with dedicated train and higher grade than passenger train. "Rescue" trains enjoy first priority all the way to the quake-hit area.

4. Keeping all-the-way watch on quake-relief transport. MOR and relevant Railway Administrations have assigned dedicated staff to take round-the-clock duty, watching and organizing quake-relief transport from departure to arrival so as to ensure safety, smoothness and quickness.

5. Strengthening material transfer of the arrived trains. QTR Company has emptied the freight yards of Xining Railway Station and Xining West Railway Station so as to expand the unloading capacity to the maximum extent for the arrived quake-relief trains. QTR Company has mobilized adequate labor forces to unload the needed materials within the shortest timeframe. QTR Company has been interacting with the local authorities to transfer the needed materials at the first time. Up to now, all the arrived materials have been transferred to the destinations.

The railway departments have secured effective transport assurance for Yushu earthquake relief campaign by the above-mentioned measures.

1. Transporting first-aid personnel at greatest speed. According to the request of various localities, railway has transported armed forces and 1687 medical staffs from Chongqing, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Beijing, Kunming and Chengdu to the quake-hit area by dispatching rescue trains and adding sleeper trains.

2. Transporting quake-relief materials at greatest speed. Railway has been transporting quake-relief materials from across the country by launching dedicated material trains. As of 08:00 on April 17th, railway has dispatched 45 rescue-dedicated material trains or 701 cars, transporting 26,000 tents, 60,000 cotton coats, 145,000 pieces of cotton quilt, 500 pieces of blanket, 20,000 foldable beds, 2,990 drug items, 6,000 boxes of drinking water, 20 tons of rice, 215 ambulances, 14 first-aid cars， 65 power motors, 12,000 tons of diesel and 500 make-shift toilets.

3. Completing preparation for the transfer of the injured. 4 injured-dedicated sleeper trains have been secured from Xi'an, Chengdu and Zhengzhou Administrations, all of which have been staffed with experienced executives and service personnel so as to ensure adequate service for the injured. All of the trains have arrived at Xining Railway Station.

Now at the key time of quake-relief work, railway is shouldering a hard task of transportation guarantee. We must strictly carry out the overall deployment on quake-relief work made by CPC Central Committee and State Council and persistently work on transportation organization so as to ensure safe and quick transportation of quake-relief materials and personnel to the quake-hit area. We have realized that demand for transportation of materials and personnel will increase along with the outspread of post-quake restoration. As a transportation mode featured with large capacity, railway is going to take on even heavier responsibility of transportation guarantee. Railway staff all over the country have decided to devote all efforts to provide good transportation guarantee in every aspect and make due contribution to the success of quake-relief work.

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