Railroaded into a Fast-Train Technology Trap

The professional dreams of a team of locomotive designers and rail systems engineers sped along steel tracks through the countryside of northeastern China.

The year was 2003, and high-speed track testing was under way between the cities of Shenyang and Qinhuangdao for the China Star bullet train, the pride of an engineering team assigned to jump-start the nation's all-new, high-speed railroad.