Reasons for the lack of vitality in railway construction during the Republic of China

Reason: the country is declining and the people are poor, and there have been wars for years.

Since the old China was mostly in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial social state from the end of the Qing government to the collapse of the Kuomintang government, its railway industry was inevitably in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial state, and the whole railway industry developed slowly and abnormally, with messy equipment and backward management. Taken together, there are roughly three kinds:

First, the number is small and the distribution is biased. On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, only 65438+100000 kilometers of railways could be kept open to traffic. The only railway with more than 20,000 kilometers is mostly distributed in the northeast and coastal areas. The vast northwest and southwest are only 1000 kilometers, accounting for only about 6% of the national railways.

Second, the standards are mixed and the quality is poor. Britain, Germany, Belgium, France, Russia, Japan, the United States and other countries have moved all kinds of railway standards to China. The gauge width varies across the country, and the standards for the boundaries, curves and slopes of bridges and tunnels along the first line are not uniform. The great powers sold their obsolete and backward equipment to China at a high price. These equipments are not only of poor quality, but also of extremely messy types, such as locomotives and rails. There is no signal in 30% stations and no blocking equipment in 70% lines. Poor equipment quality, many line diseases, traffic safety can not be guaranteed.

Third, the management is divided and the operation is backward. Most of the railways are built with foreign debts, which are guaranteed by the income from highway production and operation. Therefore, according to the country of investment, bureaus are set up and managed separately, and even a railway area is managed by several railway bureaus. This situation did not change until the late period of Kuomintang government rule. Each railway bureau has its own way, which not only leads to the implementation of a set of rules and regulations and a set of management methods for a railway, but also makes the station and maintenance, public works, electricity and other settings duplicate, and the driving expenses and employees increase, which brings a lot of inconvenience to passengers and shippers.