Make buying train tickets easy for all

Passengers buy tickets at Beijing Railway Station on Sunday after rail authorities started selling tickets for next year's Spring Festival travel period, which runs from Feb 4 to March 16. Wang Jing / China Daily

The 60-day advance booking period for train tickets during next year’s chunyun period (the Spring Festival travel season) will make it easier for some people to travel home for the all-important annual family get-together and return to work, but it may not bring convenience to all.

According to the new ticket sales system adopted by China Railway Corporation, which operates the country’s railway network, passengers can book train tickets through the Internet or over the phone 60 days in advance for the chunyun period. The travel peak period for the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 19, will begin on Feb 4 and last until March 16.

The 60-day pre-sale period is a vast improvement on the earlier provision of allowing passengers to book tickets only 20 days in advance. Also, passengers will no longer have to pay any charge for canceling their tickets up to 15 days before a train’s departure.

The 60-day pre-sale period for train tickets is expected to save a large number of passengers the trouble of queuing up for hours at railway stations or spend precious time with ticket agents to book a train ticket. It will also increase many passengers’ chances of getting a ticket for the chunyun period and reduce the pressure on traditional sales facilities. Besides, the 60-day advance booking period could prevent the frequent collapse of official online and phone ticket-booking systems because of heavy traffic.

But since the 20-day advance booking period for tickets purchased at railways stations or through authorized travel agents remains unchanged, the new system will help a select group of people — those adept at the Internet and apps. Also, such a long pre-sale period could create a dilemma for people who cannot decide their travel plans two months in advance. For example, a sudden change in work schedules can force some people to change their travel plans and thus render their advance bookings useless. To overcome this problem, some netizens have suggested that people book multiple tickets for different dates in advance. By doing so, they would keep their options open and cancel the tickets that do not suit their travel plans. This sounds like a good idea for tech-savvy passengers but not for those whose only concern is to get a ticket to home.