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Workers' ticket anguish
By Dong Zhen |
January 8, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ONLY one out of every six migrant workers planning to leave Shanghai for home before the Chinese New Year's Eve stands a chance of getting a train ticket in time, a top official with Shanghai railway operations said yesterday.
The problem of getting a ticket remains the biggest headache for the millions of travelers heading home during the Spring Festival transport peak, said Zhu Kaiping, deputy director of Shanghai railway services.
The ticketing situation was not improving despite the efforts by the railway authority who had already improved Shanghai's transport capacity by 60 percent over the past four years, Zhu added.
Shanghai's two major railway stations will send 6.92 million passengers on their way during the 40-day transport peak that starts on Sunday.
"About 2.96 million of them will choose to leave Shanghai by rail during the first 15 days in order to return home in time before the Chinese New Year's Eve," Zhu said.
Based on past experience and the fact that some tickets were reserved for group-booking by college students, it was believed that about 1.05 million of passengers will be migrant workers.
"There are about 6.6 million migrant workers in Shanghai. Most of them will intend to be back home in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year with family," Zhu said. But it seems only one out of six of them will be able to get a seat. The others will have to delay their trip or resort to other transport.
"Professional ticket touts increase the difficulty for travelers to get tickets," Zhu said, adding that some railway staff and ticketing agents could also be making illegal profits.
The city's transport watchdog yesterday launched a 24-hour hotline, 12319, to receive reports of poor service by local transport operators, internal ticketing scams, ticket touting, as well as to handle inquiries.
About 3,500 tickets have been sold from automatic machines since they went into operation at Shanghai Railway Station on Monday.
The problem of getting a ticket remains the biggest headache for the millions of travelers heading home during the Spring Festival transport peak, said Zhu Kaiping, deputy director of Shanghai railway services.
The ticketing situation was not improving despite the efforts by the railway authority who had already improved Shanghai's transport capacity by 60 percent over the past four years, Zhu added.
Shanghai's two major railway stations will send 6.92 million passengers on their way during the 40-day transport peak that starts on Sunday.
"About 2.96 million of them will choose to leave Shanghai by rail during the first 15 days in order to return home in time before the Chinese New Year's Eve," Zhu said.
Based on past experience and the fact that some tickets were reserved for group-booking by college students, it was believed that about 1.05 million of passengers will be migrant workers.
"There are about 6.6 million migrant workers in Shanghai. Most of them will intend to be back home in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year with family," Zhu said. But it seems only one out of six of them will be able to get a seat. The others will have to delay their trip or resort to other transport.
"Professional ticket touts increase the difficulty for travelers to get tickets," Zhu said, adding that some railway staff and ticketing agents could also be making illegal profits.
The city's transport watchdog yesterday launched a 24-hour hotline, 12319, to receive reports of poor service by local transport operators, internal ticketing scams, ticket touting, as well as to handle inquiries.
About 3,500 tickets have been sold from automatic machines since they went into operation at Shanghai Railway Station on Monday.
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