A little boy is drenched in sweat on a high-speed train from Beijing to Shenzhen after it is stranded on the track for nearly two hours due to a power failure on Aug. 12. (Photo from Weibo)
(ECNS) - Legal experts have further called for high-speed rail companies to compensate passengers after a delay on Friday grabbed headlines, the Legal Daily reported.
Several passengers collapsed due to the heat when their high-speed train from Beijing to Shenzhen was stranded on the track for nearly two hours due to a power failure. The temperatures inside the train reached 40 degrees centigrade, and pictures showing exhausted passengers went viral.
Yang Lixin, director of a law research center at Renmin University of China, said the train service carrier should be held liable for a breach of contract law as a result of the incident.
He also said passengers can ask the carrier directly for compensation, although it may argue the accident was the fault of power providers.
Yang suggested the compensation should be set at 500 to 1,000 yuan ($75 to $150) per passenger, in consideration of their physical and mental suffering.
But lawyer Dong Zhengwei said current laws fail to stipulate any detailed compensation policy for rail passengers. Consumers have long been absent in the law-making process, as rail travel has been a monopoly business, he said.
Another lawyer, Zhao Zhanling, also said there's a lack of regulation regarding compensation for train passengers who face delays.
He Shan, who leads an association of consumer rights law, said the railroad company could refer to airlines in providing compensation to passengers, whose rights to privacy were also violated during the incident as some passengers removed their clothes in an attempt to cool off.
Despite years of public calls for compensation for delayed rail passengers in China, no progress has been made, and rail companies have continued to ignore consumer rights, added Dong.
Dong urged regulators and judicial departments to abandon their protectionist approach to rail companies.
