East and west, home is best, so the saying goes.

It is especially true when the Chinese lunar new year arrives and when members of big or small families gather around for hearty meals and to exchange gifts.

It is also a time when childhood pals or schoolmates reunite and share experiences, anecdotes and even gossip.

For millions of migrant workers, Spring Festival is perhaps the only time when they go home to see their children and spouses and attend to their elderly.

Going home is a must, a responsibility and, above all, should be enjoyable after a year's hard work.

But those of us who travel in soft or hard berths or by air and who opt not to travel at all must respect them for their tenacity and perseverance on their journey home.

In the past few weeks, we've heard many queued up for days before they were able to secure tickets. Because of heavy snowfall in Central China, more than 100,000 got stranded in train stations for two days.

While the Ministry of Railways was enthusiastic about opening special trains for migrant workers, some such lines were very crowded with little central heating, hot water and other services that were the standard on regular trains. And it took longer to arrive at home in those trains.

One article from the Market newspaper affiliated with the People's Daily reports that some migrant workers told its reporter that a pal of theirs was hospitalized for two days after he endured cold and hunger on the Northeast-bound special train.

Other migrant workers heard from hometown folk that some lost their valuables because of the crowds and lack of police on that supplementary train.

Above all, there is much anxiety among migrant workers about not being able to get a ticket home. In fact, railway stations allow reservations for hard seats even hard berths only four days in advance. Once they attempt to book tickets at designated ticketing offices across town, they are told no tickets are available. They must go to railway stations to buy tickets.

It is really difficult to maintain order and provide good services when thousands or even tens of thousands crowd into railway station ticket offices, in addition to the crowds waiting for trains.

All these inconveniences and restrictions have given some people the opportunity to take advantage of the anxiety and cheat the travellers with fake tickets.

Increased mobility is a sign of economic development. Airports and railway stations have gotten dramatically bigger. Flights and railway lines have greatly increased.

Whether in developing and developed countries, seasonal travelling for the masses places strain on many people, from train, bus, road and airline authorities and service people to those who actually take to the road and air. Complaints of poor services are not rare anywhere in the world when the masses are on the road.

However, lack of central heating and hot water on the train bound for the coldest regions in China is negligence and should not be excused. Ticket monopoly on the part of the service providers is also questionable.

The people in charge are duty-bound to make sure that standard services are available even in this mass travelling season.

As life is getting better and economies allow, there must be ways for the authorities and service people to explore to improve the conditions for the mass travelling.

The clich is "improvement with development," but I believe doubly hard work and more creative ideas are needed to ease anxiety and make the home journeys as enjoyable as possible.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/26/2006 page4)