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Let migrant groups book in advance
By Wu Jiayin |
January 16, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AS the 2009 Spring Festival approaches, getting a train ticket home has again become the most pressing problem for many people in China, especially migrant workers.
Endless lines of people waiting in cold weather before ticket windows is a common scene at railway stations and ticket agencies.
Indeed, the difficulty in buying tickets is unavoidable given the greatly insufficient railway transport capacity versus the astronomical flow of people rushing home at one time to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
But the railway departments should take pains to make the experience of buying train tickets less painful.
During 40 days of the Spring Festival peak travel season starting January 11, the total passenger flow by all means of transport will reach 2.32 billion, an increase of 3.5 percent than last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
The railway is expected to handle 188 million journeys in the Spring Festival period this year, said Wang Yongping, spokesman for the Ministry of Railways.
Cheap train travel is still the first choice for most people with meager or no income, mostly migrant workers and college students, who make up the majority of the traveling population. Taking a train is cheaper than taking the bus.
The gap between the demand and supply is so huge that it cannot be bridged over a short time.
The problem won't be solved until around 2015, provided China continues to increase its rail system investment, estimated Wang Qingyun, head of Department of Basic Industries of the National Development and Reform Commission. He made that estimate two months ago.
Still, this does not justify the terrible experience for many passengers trying to get a ticket.
During the Spring Festival peak travel season, ticket windows start to sell tickets 10 days before train departure.
But to get tickets, people have to line up hours or even days before the first day that windows start selling their tickets. Most must spend several hours in the cold open air.
By 7am on January 12, there were over 5,000 people in two queues before a railway station in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, according to news.163.com. Each line was over two kilometers.
Most people had lined up for the whole night, when the temperature dipped to minus 4.4 Celsius.
Three girls fainted, two were sent to the hospital. One insisted on staying because she didn't want to lose her place ?? she fainted again.
One suggestion is that railway departments accept advance group bookings from factories that employ many migrants, just as they do with universities. Trade unions could also help migrant workers.
To avoid ticket scalping, a real-name ticket system is needed.
In India, which also has a huge population, a real-name ticket system has been in practice for over 100 years, according to Ma Guangyuan, expert on public policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. There are virtually no ticket scalpers, he said.
Endless lines of people waiting in cold weather before ticket windows is a common scene at railway stations and ticket agencies.
Indeed, the difficulty in buying tickets is unavoidable given the greatly insufficient railway transport capacity versus the astronomical flow of people rushing home at one time to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
But the railway departments should take pains to make the experience of buying train tickets less painful.
During 40 days of the Spring Festival peak travel season starting January 11, the total passenger flow by all means of transport will reach 2.32 billion, an increase of 3.5 percent than last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
The railway is expected to handle 188 million journeys in the Spring Festival period this year, said Wang Yongping, spokesman for the Ministry of Railways.
Cheap train travel is still the first choice for most people with meager or no income, mostly migrant workers and college students, who make up the majority of the traveling population. Taking a train is cheaper than taking the bus.
The gap between the demand and supply is so huge that it cannot be bridged over a short time.
The problem won't be solved until around 2015, provided China continues to increase its rail system investment, estimated Wang Qingyun, head of Department of Basic Industries of the National Development and Reform Commission. He made that estimate two months ago.
Still, this does not justify the terrible experience for many passengers trying to get a ticket.
During the Spring Festival peak travel season, ticket windows start to sell tickets 10 days before train departure.
But to get tickets, people have to line up hours or even days before the first day that windows start selling their tickets. Most must spend several hours in the cold open air.
By 7am on January 12, there were over 5,000 people in two queues before a railway station in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, according to news.163.com. Each line was over two kilometers.
Most people had lined up for the whole night, when the temperature dipped to minus 4.4 Celsius.
Three girls fainted, two were sent to the hospital. One insisted on staying because she didn't want to lose her place ?? she fainted again.
One suggestion is that railway departments accept advance group bookings from factories that employ many migrants, just as they do with universities. Trade unions could also help migrant workers.
To avoid ticket scalping, a real-name ticket system is needed.
In India, which also has a huge population, a real-name ticket system has been in practice for over 100 years, according to Ma Guangyuan, expert on public policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. There are virtually no ticket scalpers, he said.
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