Going by the inescapable and somewhat scary announcement “kindly” informing passengers on high-speed trains in China that smoking is strictly prohibited, the answer is surely “something serious”. And so it is, as two young men on a train to Nanjing recently found out.
On 23 February, the C426 train departed Qidong City in eastern Jiangsu Province, as it does every day, at 14:00, for a 17:42 arrival at Nanjing Railway Station.
2月23日，C426次列车14:00从江苏省启东市出发，17:42到达南京站。
Yet, that day’s journey was going to be different. And it all began at Yangzhou Railway Station, where two men boarded the train.
然而，那天的旅程将会有所不同。这一切都始于扬州火车站，两名男子登上了火车。
Guo Minghui of the Nanjing Railway Station Police Station spoke with The Paper in a video report published today, 4 March, and explained what happened next.
3月4日，南京火车站派出所民警郭明辉在接受澎湃新闻采访时发布了视频报道，并解释了接下来发生的事情。
Suddenly, the toilet smoke alarm in the train’s carriage number six sounded. That event immediately triggered an automatic deceleration of the train.
突然，火车六号车厢的厕所烟雾报警器响起。该事件立即触发了列车自动减速。
The C426 service is operated by China’s recently-introduced, green, high-speed trains, which, with a maximum speed of 160 kilometres per hour, are not actually so fast.
C426次列车由中国最近推出的绿色高速列车运营，最高时速为160公里，实际上并没有那么快。
When the smoke alarm was activated, the train was travelling at 158 kilometres per hour. The automatic deceleration brought it to 113 kilometres per hour, where it remained for 2 minutes.
当烟雾警报器启动时，火车正以每小时158公里的速度行驶。自动减速使其达到每小时 113 公里，并保持了 2 分钟。
During this time, one of the train’s attendants rushed to the carriage in question, where she witnessed smoke coming from toilet’s ventilation grille and some cigarette ash on the floor. The attendant knocked on the toilet’s door and informed its occupants that the game was up.
其间，一名列车乘务员赶到了涉事车厢，看到厕所通风格栅冒出浓烟，地板上还残留着一些烟灰。服务员敲了敲厕所的门，告诉里面的人比赛结束了。
As within their rights, staff then unlocked the toilet door from the outside and discovered the two men smoking within. It was also found that the pair had earlier been drinking beer on the train.
根据他们的权利，工作人员随后从外面打开厕所门，发现两名男子在里面吸烟。还发现两人此前曾在火车上喝过啤酒。
The two were fined ¥600 each and placed on China Railway’s credit blacklist. As such, they have been banned from taking a high-speed train for 180 days.
两人各被罚款600元，并被列入中国铁路信用黑名单。因此，他们被禁止在180天内乘坐高铁。
