By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-21 08:09

Efforts to clear a blocked tunnel on the earthquake-ravaged Baoji-Chengdu railway got a shot in the arm yesterday when the final two gas tankers were pulled clear, the Ministry of Railways said.

All 12 tankers, part of a 40-car freight train trapped in the No 109 tunnel by landslides following last week's earthquake, had been removed by yesterday afternoon, ministry spokesman Wang Yongping said.

The breakthrough came after an emergency team opened the sealed northern end of the tunnel at 3 am yesterday and hauled out eight cars.

"There are still 18 carriages left in the tunnel," Wang said, without saying when he thought the line, which links the northwest and southwest of the country, would reopen.

The train, which was carrying, among other things, 500 tons of gasoline, became trapped close to the exit of the 726-m tunnel when rocks fell onto the tracks.

Despite his efforts to stop the train, the driver was unable to avoid careening into the debris.

Both he and his co-driver were injured in the collision, and the locomotive and first two cars burst into flames.

The collapsed tunnel, together with two rail bridges jolted from their original positions, paralyzed the Baoji-Chengdu railway and blocked an all-important lifeline for relief coming from the north.

Four other Sichuan lines cut off by the quake reopened to traffic a day later following speedy repairs.

Li Chunhong, a military officer assigned to the Baoji-Chengdu clearance operation, said there is a slim chance the tunnel could reopen at the end of next week if weather permits.

Previously, poisonous gas emitted from the fire and the dangers posed by the gasoline had prevented firefighters from entering the tunnel, he said to the 21st Century Business Herald.

When the army team arrived the day after the earthquake, the temperature at both of the tunnel's exits had reached 160 C, he said.

Fearing an explosion, local officials helped evacuate more than 900 farmers living in two nearby towns to a safer place 6 km away.

Meanwhile, firefighters, repair workers and military teams got on with tackling the blaze.

Command headquarters quickly decided to seal the tunnel and pump in water from the adjacent Jialing River to extinguish the flames.

Electricity generators and water pumps were used the night after the tremor and the fire was extinguished after two days, lowering the temperature at the exits to 30- 40 C on Friday.

Equipped with water canons, firefighters then broke into the tunnel from the southern exit to cool down the gas tankers.

Later that night, the train's locomotive was hauled out.

Two cars carrying feed and corn were pulled out over the following two days, before work began to remove the 12 tankers.

An official from the railway ministry, surnamed Ma, told China Daily that workers had braved extreme danger to extricate the cars.

"Some tankers were half full of gasoline, and poisonous gas was still inside the tunnel," he said.

"Some of the tankers were hard to pull because they were surrounded by heavy rocks."

With so many unknown dangers still facing the operation, Ma said the ministry could not accurately estimate when the tunnel would reopen.

Trains from Baoji to Chengdu are currently being rerouted via Xi'an and Yangpingguang.