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October 1, 2012

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Early start didn't help in the rush for buses

There was chaos at a long-distance bus station in Ji'nan, capital city of eastern Shandong Province on Saturday, as thousands of passengers tried to avoid the holiday rush by arriving early.

Local traffic authorities said too many passengers happened to have the same idea - taking the day before the holiday off in order to avoid what they thought would be the peak travel period.

Saturday's problem was compounded by the fact that many coaches returning to the station got stuck because of the huge increase in traffic on the roads and subsequent gridlocks.

Anxious passengers described their experiences online, saying that the station had canceled security checks to speed up traffic.

One passenger said she waited for five hours to board a bus but was kept waiting for another one hour before it finally hit the road.

She accused the bus station authorities of selling as many tickets as they could but not caring whether they could handle the numbers or not, leaving passengers to suffer extreme over-crowding and delays.

Another passenger, Sun Wanbao, complained that people could not move around inside the station because of the over-crowding with people stepping on each others' feet.

There were also huge crowds at railway stations in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province.

The city's three stations handled 180,000 passengers on Saturday, higher than the record on a single day during the Spring Festival, the traditional busiest period.

Heavy traffic gridlock in many parts of the city delayed many travelers on their way to the stations, causing about 13,000 to miss their trains and have to ask for refunds or re-scheduling of their tickets.


 

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