NEW LINE: Under a plan presented to the national legislature to restructure Cabinet departments, China's government said it would dismantle the railways ministry and move its operations into a newly created company.

OFF THE TRACK: As it expanded the railway system and built the world's largest high-speed rail network, the ministry ran up hundreds of billions of dollars in debt and sank into corruption, giving critics an opportunity to pounce.

LAST STOP: Reform-minded Chinese leaders and officials had been trying to bring the railways to heel for 15 years when the government first started separating state companies from regulatory bodies.