Commuters balk at new high-speed train prices
- Source: Global Times
- [10:08 June 25 2010]
- Comments
A driver at the controls of one of the new high-speed trains during a trial on June 21. The trains will begin full operation between Shanghai and Nanjing on July 1. Photo: Xinhua
By Li Xiang
Tickets for the new high-speed trains between Shanghai and Nanjing that are set to go into operation on July 1 will cost around twice as much as the current service.
Tickets for the new trains, known as gaotie in Chinese and identified by the prefix "G" on timetables, will cost 233 yuan ($34.34) for first-class seats and 146 yuan ($21.52) for second-class seats, Shanghai Railway Bureau announced Thursday. The journey time will be one hour and 23 minutes.
But with services on the current "D" trains costing 111 yuan ($16.36) for first-class and 93 yuan ($13.71) for second-class for a journey time ranging from an hour and 57 minutes to 2 hours and 23 minutes, some regular commuters have complained that tickets for the new "G" trains are too expensive.
"The prices are ridiculously high," Chien Wei-wei, a Taiwanese business passenger who takes at least two round trips every week on the Shanghai-Nanjing route, said. "I thought they would not be much higher than the current 'D'-initial trains between the two cities."
When asked about the high prices, Tao Liping, media officer at the Shanghai Railway Bureau, told the Global Times that ticket prices were not set by his bureau.
"We are the operator of the high-speed train, but it's the National Commission of Development and Reform that sets the ticket prices," he said. "I can not offer you any more information with regards to how the prices were set."
The large difference in price between first and second-class tickets has also been a point of contention with some regular passengers.
"I really don't think the first-class tickets on the new service are a good deal, as you pay twice as much as on the 'D' trains, yet get less than an hour shaved off the travel time," Zhang Ruining, a marketing employee for LCD manufacturer LG Display who lives in Nanjing, told the Global Times.
"People will fight for a second-class seat, especially if the previous 'D' trains are supplanted by the new 'G' service," Zhang continued.
Zhang's fears that slower services could be phased out to make way for the new faster service have been realized on the three other routes in China where the "G" trains have been introduced.
The Beijing to Tianjin route, which was the first in China to begin using the new trains in 2008, currently has no normal trains left between the two cities, except for through trains.
The route between Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, and Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, has seen 13 of its 15 slower services scrapped since the introduction of the "G" trains.
The high-speed link between Xi'an, capital of northwest Shaanxi Province and Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan Province, also spelled the end for the three slower trains that previously plied the route.
However, Tao denied that the Shanghai Railway Bureau plans to end the slower services between Shanghai and Nanjing. "The trains will operate just as they do now, while there will also be more trains originating from other stations along the route," Tao said.
"The central government wants to build more high-speed rail routes to bolster commerce," Yang Xin, senior analyst of Ernst & Young, told the Global Times.
