January 13 was the first day China's passengers were able to buy
train tickets for the Spring Festival, the nation's most important
traditional holiday.
By the time tickets began selling at?7?PM yesterday,
many people had already lined up before the ticket windows.
Metropolis like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou saw a
visible surge of ticket buyers last night, mostly migrant workers
and university students.
The Spring Festival transportation season lasts 40 days, from
January 23 to March 2 while the Spring Festival is from February 6
to 8.
Passengers can buy tickets ten days ahead of their
departure.
According to Beijing Railway Bureau, the Spring Festival travel
season started a little earlier this year. The flows of students
and migrant workers are expected to overlap late this month.
Passengers leaving for provincial capitals like Chengdu, Nanchang,
Hefei, and Baotou have seen significant growth.
As the winter vacation begins, railway bureaus in different
provinces across the country set up sales outlets in colleges and
universities to facilitate students buying tickets. They also
planned to add more passenger trains to send migrant workers
home.
More than 2 billion people/journeys were made during the Spring
Festival flow last year, driven by emotional ties to their
families. The overwhelming majority of people chose to travel by
bus.
Only 140 million people/journeys were made by train during the
last Spring Festival, though train charges are much cheaper than
bus tickets.
Getting train tickets remains the biggest difficulty for those
who plan to go home to have a get-together with their families.
(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2008)
