Traffic resumes on landslide-hit railway

XI'AN - Traffic on a major railway in western China resumed on Monday, five days after a landslide unleashed by torrential rain forced the line's closure, railway authorities said.

As of 8:59 pm, trains were able to pass in both directions through Guangyuan city in Sichuan province, on the Baoji-Chengdu Railway, according to the Xi'an Railway Bureau, which administers the line.

The landslide happened at 12:37 pm on Thursday, damaging the track and forcing train services to be suspended, said an official with the bureau.

Traffic resumed in one direction at 6:09 pm on Thursday, but it took the efforts of 2,000 people, 14 excavators and two loaders to allow it to resume in the other direction five days later, the official said.

The railway is a key transportation route between the city of Baoji in Northwest China's Shaanxi province and Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.