Traffic resumed at 2.45 p.m. on Sunday, a day after a north-south express train derailed in the central Thua Thien Hue province, 650 kilometers south of Hanoi, killing 11 passengers and injuring 70 others, railway officials said.
Two of the train's 13 carriages which flung from the track were still at the crash site, while the others were transported to nearest stations for repair works, clearing the track for traffic, officials said.
A number of foreigners and overseas Vietnamese were among the train's passengers, but only one Vietnamese expatriate was injured, according to officials.
"Unusual speed"
A group of traffic police investigators was dispatched to the crash site on Mar. 12 for emergency probes amid news that the train was running very fast before the accident.
Eyewitnesses reported that the train, covering the 1800-km Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City route in 30 hours, was traveling at an "unusual speed" when it derailed, said Colonel Vu Si Doanh, a high-ranking traffic police.
The train's maximum speed is 90 kilometers an hour, while the speed limit for the section of track is only 40 kilometers an hour.
However, Colonel Doanh said proper examinations should be taken at the crash site carefully before any conclusion is made.
Information about the train's speed was very important to find out the cause of the accident, and to know the speed, it is necessary to decode figures from the trains black box, he said.
The train's black box has been sent to Hanoi for decoding, he said.
If the train was traveling faster than its speed limit when it crashed, the driver would take the main responsibility and would be indicted, Mr. Doanh said.
The driver and the train's captain have also been taken to Hanoi for investigation.
Inadequate railway system
Colonel Doanh said what should also be taken into account was the inadequacy of the country's railroad infrastructure.
The quality of the country's railway does not ensure safety when trains run at high speed, he said.
The railroad system across the country's central region has seen accidents on a regular basis because of its harsh terrain of many mountain passes, slopes, tunnels and curved lines, said Nguyen Huu Bang, chief executive of State-owed Vietnam Railways.
"We are asking the government for approval to upgrade the central regions railroad infrastructure," Mr. Bang said.
Mr. Bang dismissed the suggestion that all express trains be halted before the cause of the accident is clarified, saying that this express service had operated smoothly for 3 years before this accident.
