Immediately after the accident, two top officials of the Jinan Railway Bureau were sacked. The bureau's former director Chen Gong and former Communist Party chief Chai Tiemin face an investigation by the Ministry of Railways.

The ministry has appointed Geng Zhixiu, deputy engineer-in-chief of the ministry as the new director, and Xu Chang'an, deputy chair of the ministry's trade union, as the new Party chief.

A ministry spokesman has offered condolences to the victims.

"We grieve over the loss of life and sincerely hope those who were injured in the accident will recover soon," said Wang Yongping.

The accident caught the attention of top Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun and head of the State Administration of Work Safety Wang Jun are at the site to oversee the rescue work.

Traffic disruption

The crash disrupted two-way traffic on the century-old Jinan-Qingdao Railway, a 384-km trunk line between the two big cities in Shandong.

The railway was originally built by the Germans in Qingdao in 1901 and opened to traffic in 1904.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at stations in Shandong on Monday and authorities arranged buses to divert the crowds.

Cranes and forklifts were sent in at midday to remove the wrecked cars and damaged cross-ties from the rails. By 5 p.m., more than 1,000 workers were still repairing the line. Electricians installed more lighting for night repair work.

The Ministry of Railways said it expected to restore service at about 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

Monday's crash was the second major rail accident in Shandong this year.

In January, a high-speed train from Beijing to Qingdao ran down a group of railway workers, leaving 18 dead and nine others injured. The workers were relocating the tracks when the train struck the work site in Anqiu.

China had raised train speeds six times as of April 2007, with railways allowing a speed of more than 200 km per hour totaling 6,227 km. By 2020, the length of such high-speed railways is forecast to reach 18,000 km and high-speed services will cover 50,000 km, serving 90 percent of China's population.

Work has started on several new high-speed rail lines, including the Beijing-Tianjin railway and the Beijing-Shanghai railway. The latter, with a designed speed of 350 km/hr, broke ground in mid-April.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2008)