Ticket changes aim to ease the load in great migration

But Many still find it difficult to buy a seat on the train to return home

China's transport authorities have taken measures to ensure that more people can buy train tickets, a tall task for many of the millions of travelers during the world's largest temporary movement of people for the Lunar New Year holiday.

A record 3.4 billion trips are expected during this year's holiday crush, which lasts for 40 days from Jan 26 to March 6. Millions of Chinese return home to reunite with family during Spring Festival, the most important traditional Chinese holiday. This year's Chinese New Year's Day falls on Feb 10.

In the midst of the 40-day rush, Chinese people have had difficulties securing a transit ticket despite increased transport capacity. Train tickets are especially difficult to come by, because railways are traditionally favored for safety and lower prices. At rail stations across China, many often have to wait in long queues often for hours, and sometimes overnight.

The Ministry of Railways is encouraging migrant workers to buy tickets in groups (normally with 10 or more people) before the official date when tickets are released.

To make it easier to buy a seat on a train, tickets were made available online as early as 20 days before a train departure, a measure that took effect in early January. People can also buy tickets at railway stations 18 days in advance.

Railway authorities have arranged for an average of 1,242 more services every day during the 40-day travel season. A total of 4,629 passenger trains completed 4.98 million journeys on Jan 29, the ministry said. Authorities also arranged 526 temporary trains on Jan 30 and predicted a total of 5.25 million journeys will be handled. Railway stations in Shanghai handled about 3 million passengers within the first three days since the travel season started.

The country's rail network is expected to handle 225 million trips, while long-distance buses will complete 3.1 billion trips. Combined, they account for 99 percent of the national capacity, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

Airlines have increased capacity to handle 35.5 million journeys, up 5.2 percent from the same period last year.

Feng Zhenglin, vice-minister of transport, said before the holiday travel season that transit authorities across China should improve contingency plans to deal with bad weather conditions, including extreme cold, smog and heavy snow. Feng said that enterprises should ramp up their driver training courses to ensure a safe Spring Festival.

The worst smog in decades in China has already affected travel across the nation, though rail delays have not been extensive or serious, transport authorities say.

The thick smog covering major cities of China has lowered visibility to less than 1,000 meters in most parts of central and eastern China. Dozens of expressways were temporarily closed in these areas, the Ministry of Transport said.

The haze also forced some airports to close temporarily and caused flight cancellations and delays.

Sixty flights at Beijing Capital International Airport, including 14 international flights, had been cancelled by the evening of Jan 29 due to low visibility. Dozens of flights had been cancelled at the airport, the world's second busiest, on the morning of Jan 31.

In response to the greater accessibility of train tickets, Wang Ying, who is from East China's Anhui province but works in Beijing, said he's happy about the new measures.

"I usually buy train tickets at the railway station or through official agents, but now I always buy at home on my computer," he said. "It saves a lot of time. But still I find it very difficult to get a ticket before the Spring Festival, and all the tickets to my hometown seemed to be gone in a flash after they started selling online."

Many migrant workers, who often lack basic computer skills, are also finding it hard to get tickets online.

Li Jun, who works in a restaurant in Beijing, said he finally got a ticket back home to Chengdu, Sichuan province, after going to Beijing Railway Station many times.

"I heard it's easier to get a ticket booking on the computer, but I don't know how to use the computer," he said. "Luckily, I live near the railway station, so I can keep coming here to try and finally I got one."

Liu Xiao, a researcher at Anbound Consultancy, a think tank in Beijing, said everyone in China is having similar ticket troubles.

"It has always been very difficult to buy train tickets in recent years, not only for migrant workers, but also for all other groups such as white-collar workers," Liu said. "The root cause is the gap between supply and demand of train travel services."

Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert in underground engineering, said about 600 billion yuan ($96 billion) will be invested every year for the next three years to extend the railway network.

China's railways covered 98,000 kilometers by the end of last year, ranking second in the world. The total length of its operating high-speed railway network reached 9,356 km, the longest in the world, by the end of last year. That last figure will rise to 18,000 km by 2015, said Sheng Guangzu, minister of railways.

An unnamed official at the Ministry of Railways recently told Xinhua News Agency that "the difficulty to get a train ticket during the Spring Festival holidays will still exist for quite a long time in the future".

Liu of Anbound Consultancy, said the key to mitigating the logjam come Spring Festival is to have a balanced level of development across China.

"In the long run, balanced economic development among different regions can help reduce the need for migration and can ultimately ease competition for train tickets during the Spring Festival period."

wangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn