All aboard for safer, smarter train travel

New facility

Rail regulators have also introduced innovative food-dispensing services to not only reduce human contact, but also give travelers wider meal and snack options.

Nanjing South Railway Station, one of the busiest railway hubs in Jiangsu province, has installed the new food-dispensing machines or cabinets.

Restaurants and bakeries stock the machines and customers can either buy on site or order meals in advance. To purchase directly from the machine, passengers use their smartphones to scan a QR code and pay, and then collect a meal, either hot or cold, dispensed from the device.

Customers can download a smartphone app to order a meal from a restaurant in advance and pick it up when they arrive at the station.

All food providers are located in the railway station and are randomly inspected by the station's epidemic control department. Warm dishes are required to be placed in the cabinets within 90 minutes of cooking to keep the food fresh.

A good variety of dishes, both hot and cold, are provided by the vending machines, said Shen Qian from the Shanghai Railway Group, which is in charge of the new service.

She added that unlike regular food-vending machines hot dishes are available. A Nanjing dish, duck blood soup with vermicelli, is popular with customers, along with regular favorites such as cookies and other travel snacks.

Placing a food order in advance can save travelers a great deal of time, Shen said.

Passenger Zhang Yuan recently bought a baked cheese dish from a food cabinet at Nanjing South Railway Station. The 29-year-old said the cabinet is an innovative and convenient way to dispense food.

"I was in a hurry when I arrived at the ticket checking gate," he said. "Ticket checking was about to start and I had no time to run to the store to grab a bite."

Zhang said when he lined up for his ticket to be checked, he noticed the food cabinet near the gate, which he thought was a novelty. "It looked clean and shiny and the food in each drawer looked fresh," he said, adding that he could make the purchase without interacting with a cashier. "I feel safer this way."

He said that the dish cost 20 yuan ($3), the same price a store usually charges. "I will definitely recommend (the cabinet) to my family and friends if they travel to and from Nanjing," he added.

Special services

A visually impaired couple from Changde, Hunan province work as massage specialists in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. To avoid the peak travel time during Spring Festival, the couple traveled home in early January.

Before the trip, the husband called a hotline and told volunteers their travel plans. The volunteers, all local railway employees, bought tickets, booked taxis and looked after them on their journey home.

On Jan 9, the couple and a visually impaired friend set out on their journey from Shenzhen. A taxi, booked by volunteers, picked them up outside their home.

When they arrived at Shenzhen Railway Station, Yang Hong, another volunteer, met them at the entrance, guided them to the ticket checking gate and helped them board the train.

Yang informed the conductor and train attendants that the trio were visually impaired and saw them off.

On the train, the attendants offered them bottled water to ensure they weren't scalded by hot water while trying to use onboard taps.

When they arrived at Changde, volunteers waited for them on the platform and led them out of the railway station.

The service started five years ago when a railway employee noticed visually impaired passenger Xie Wenjing at Changde Railway Station struggling to get a train to Shenzhen. Railway workers later learned that there was a group of visually impaired massage specialists from Changde working in Shenzhen.

Xie spread the word among his friends and news of the support service was soon known among the group of visually impaired masseuses.

According to the Guangzhou Railway Group, more than 800 visually impaired passengers have used the service.

"Without help, we are like chickens with their heads cut off running around in a crowded railway station. They (the volunteers) are like our eyes," Xie said.

Yan Hao in Xi'an, Lu Ping in Shanghai and Lin Hao in Guangzhou contributed to this story.