Big freeze slows the journey home
Print Edition
TENS of thousands of people were stranded at a station in Guangzhou yesterday morning, after snow and ice elsewhere disrupted the world’s largest annual human migration ahead of the Spring Festival, which falls next Monday.
Many trains to the capital of south China’s Guangdong Province had been delayed after north and central China were hit by the big freeze, leaving no transport available for those waiting to begin their journeys home for the holiday.
Police said the numbers stuck at two of the city’s main stations, Guangzhou and Guangzhou East, had risen to nearly 100,000 by Monday morning, prompting the mobilization of almost 4,000 police and security guards to maintain order.
By lunchtime yesterday, Guangzhou station and its surroundings were still packed with more than 50,000 anxious travelers as 24 trains were behind schedule, Xinhua news agency reported.
It was estimated that more than 175,000 passengers would be leaving from the station yesterday, the 10th day of the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush.
About 12.7 million passengers are expected to leave Guangzhou by train over the entire travel rush period, a year-on-year increase of 4.6 percent, Vice Mayor Zhou Yawei said in a meeting in December.
Chen Jianping, a spokesman for Guangzhou Railway Group Corp, said emergency measures had been taken to avoid overcrowding at Guangzhou Railway Station.
Since the 11 waiting rooms and the waiting hall can only hold 23,000 people and 16 temporary sheds only 20,000 people, the station had put restrictions in place, he said.
Only passengers due to depart within two hours were being allowed to enter the waiting hall and the company had also reduced the arrival/departure cross-over time for each train.
Many trains on the timetable run on the country’s busiest Beijing-Guangzhou line, but freezing rain and snow in provinces along the route — Hebei, Hunan and Hubei — had caused delays in trains arriving. Also, railway operators around the country were at almost full capacity to deal with the rush, and it was hard to arrange more trains to ease the situation, Chen said.
Guangzhou police said several roads surrounding the station were off limits for vehicles from 7:30am yesterday. Three hours later, the Metro station at Guangzhou Railway Station was closed.
The station is publishing real-time arrival and departure information via various outlets such as microblog sites, local media and messaging apps.
High-speed trains at the station had not been affected, according to the railway company.
As China’s manufacturing powerhouse, Guangdong is a major hub for the vast numbers of migrant workers who leave home to seek work in factories in the city.
Many return home just once a year, when tradition dictates that family members get together before midnight on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
The phenomenon puts huge pressure on China’s transport infrastructure.
According to government estimates, 2.91 billion trips will be taken over the 40-day travel rush.
Much of China was struck by a teeth-chattering cold snap late last month that broke decades-old records, with snow falling in some areas for the first time in years.
The freeze also delayed 55 trains at a station in Shanghai, forcing around 30,000 travelers to wait for hours on Monday before they could board, according to China Central Television.
Guangzhou police warned of more train chaos to come as the bad weather was expected to continue. Police urged passengers not to go to railway stations too far ahead of scheduled departure times to avoid long waits and prevent overcrowding.
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