Last month's fatal train crash has shaken the country, not only causing the loss of lives and delayed and unclear explanations, but also undermining people's confidence in the rail system.
Bai Ruoxue stands in line at the bus station of Fuzhou, capital city of eastern Fujian Province, waiting to buy a ticket to her hometown of Zhaoan, in the southernmost part of the province. She decided to take the bus despite the fact that it takes three hours longer than the bullet train.
"I took train all the time in the past," said the 20-year-old college student. "I thought trains were safe and fast." But after the tragic train collision on July 23, Bai swore not to take bullet trains.
"My mom called me before I came here and told me that if I had to take the bullet train, just let her know, so she could burn incense and pray," Bai said.
Fuzhou was the terminal for trains D301 and D3115, the two trains involved in the accident that cost 40 people their lives.
Casual observation of a passing bullet train in the area reveals that it's not yet back to business as usual.
On July 27, a journalist with the Jiefang Daily reported a half-empty train heading from Shanghai to Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, where the crash occurred.
"Many of the carriages had just two or three passengers," said the reporter, Zhu Chen.
Prior to the accident, a train running at this time was always full, said train attendant Quan Hongjiao.
While trains were once a reflexive choice, the accident has caused many people to consciously choose not to take them.
"Less people are choosing to ride trains on their tours," said a man surnamed Hao, a manager with Beijing Youth Travel Service Co.
But Wang Ting, a publicity official for the Fuzhou Railway Station, said the number of passengers began to rebound in the last couple of days, and even suggested that the amount of passengers was about the same as it had been before the accident, though she refused to give precise numbers, saying regulations don't permit her to do so.
