Top Urgent!! chengdu to lhasa railway, brokedown due to big flood

well considering most foreign tourists in their right minds would not consider catching the train from chengdu, it probably won't effect the flow in by train of foreign tourists, as the train goers are more likely to get on in Beijing or Xining.

lhasalb - Why do you think this would not effect foreigners? Seems to me that lots of people organize Tibet travels in and depart from Chengdu. I am unclear, is the disruption between Chengdu and Lhasa or between Chengdu and someplace else.

Ruth

The train from Chengdu to Lhasa goes through Xining, so practically this does not stop people from takiing the train to Lhasa, it only prevents them from going by train all the way from Chengdu to Lhasa on that normal route. This of course is bad news for industry people who sell train trips from Chengdu and for the tourists who were planning that trip right now.
As I understand this occurred just north of Chengdu in Guangyuan and that all passengers got off safely.

In any case the train affected at the time was reportedly travelling between Xian and kunming, in the sichuan area of Guanghan http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11024357

The workaround now is to fly from Chengdu to Xining and take the train from there. It's not too bad as Xining itself is worth a day or two for the Ta'er Monastery (one of the big six Tibetan monasteries) and Qinghai Lake.

BAD NEWS

Does the bridge washing out also affect road travel? For instance if one wants to travel by car or bus from Chengdu to Xining?

Thanks,
Marsha

In fact, the Chengdu to Lhasa train was not affacted by the bridge collapse, see info below

http://blog.chengdutolhasa.com/2010/08/chengdu-to-lhasa-train-runs-as-well_20.html