Spider-Men keeping rail travelers safe
Print Edition
Move over Spider-Man, Miao Yingjiao’s the real thing. He’s one of a growing army of workers who spend almost every night suspended high above the ground to maintain overhead railway lines.
After midnight, after the high-speed trains come to a halt, Miao climbs onto thin wires six meters above Laibin City in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Carrying a pair of pliers, he checks that all the screws are in place and the lines are properly connected.
“My job is to guarantee that high-speed trains operate properly in the daytime,” the 24-year-old says. “I have to be very careful because a single trivial mistake could cause a major accident.”
Miao is one of many “Spider-Men” meeting the increasing demand for overhead line maintenance as the development of high-speed railways continues on its fast track.
Such workers came into the spotlight last week, when Chinese financial newspaper the Economic Daily featured Miao in an article.
China had 16,000 kilometers of operational high-speed railway lines, about 60 percent of the world’s total, by the end of 2014, according to official data. And it is these Spider-Men who help the trains stay safely on the track.
“When I first started climbing up to the lines two years ago, I could feel my legs shaking, and I just wanted to quit,” Miao says. “It took me a while to get used to it.”
Wu Xiaoming, an overhead line worker in Changchun, capital of the northeast China’s Jilin Province, says another challenge is adjusting to working at night.
“Each of us is typically on a four-day shift, working at night and sleeping in the day,” Wu says.
Cellphone signals and Internet connections are suspended where he works, as it is close to an airport.
“We literally live in isolation for four consecutive days,” he says.
“My job can be tough sometimes,” says Song Chao, a worker in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province.
“But it is worth it because I know that I am keeping millions of people safe.”
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