End of the line for 'Green Skins'
- Source: Global Times
- [10:45 June 28 2010]
- Comments
'Green Skin' passengers depart from Beijing on Saturday to arrive in Shanghai some 22 hours later. The train left the capital for Shanghai one last time Sunday and was scheduled to arrive in the city this morning. Photo: IC
By Chen Xiaoru
The end of an era will be reaching its last stretch at the Shanghai Railway Station at 10:40 am today, when the last "Green Skin" slow-train servicing the country's two largest metropolises is expected to arrive in the city after departing from Beijing Sunday around noon.
A staple of the nation's historic railway system from the 1950s to the 80s, the trains nicknamed after their dark green exterior will be replaced by a series of new cherry-red trains, the ones commonly used for China's normal-speed routes.
Though the updated carriages will include air-conditioning, more comfortable seats and better toilets than their Green Skin predecessors, fans of the old-style trains are paying tribute to the last of their childhood memories - complaining that the replacements cost nearly double the price - and leaving them optionless when it comes to affordable train travel.
With code numbers 1461 and 1642, the Green Skins offer the 22-hour route spanning some 1,463 kilometers for a modest 88 yuan ($12.96). Its replacements, however, will run travelers 158 yuan ($23.27).
The new trains will still make 24 stops while crossing Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, and take the same amount of time to reach its destination by traveling at the equivalent speeds of the Green Skins at no more than 120 kilometers per hour.
Essentially, the slowest train along the Shanghai-Beijing route will trod alongside the "D" trains - which nearly halve the traveling time for the same route to some 10 hours - and will lag far behind the bullet trains reported to be put into operation next year, said to accomplish the same ride in just four hours.
As the Green Skins disappear, students and migrant workers, who make up the majority of the passengers, worry that their livelihood will be at stake when the carriages cross the final tracks.
"It's a real pity - the price of the new trains is being set far too high," Wang Yingxiao, a university student who has frequently taken the train from Shanghai to Beijing, told the Global Times Sunday. "Next time, I'll be forced to take another train since they are almost the same price, but take up less time."
Such value-added costs can be found by taking the "T" trains, which offer residents the journey to the capital in a more forgiving time frame of 13 hours for 179 yuan ($26.36).
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Railway Bureau claimed Sunday that ridding of the Green Skins is simply a natural progression in the development of the municipal rail system.
"The decision was commissioned by the Ministry of Railways," Tao Liping, a press officer for Shanghai Railway Bureau, told the Global Times Sunday. "It's understandable as the new trains will better meet the needs of passengers by bringing more convenience to them."
The trains of the past, with only electric fans hanging from the ceilings, were hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. The seats were rock hard, the hot water was heated by coal, and the bathrooms were filthy and smelly, and often ran out of water as a result of too many passengers and a lack of management on board.
Yet bitter memories did not stop train lovers from getting nostalgic upon hearing the news Sunday.
"I've always wanted to ride the Green Skin, and finally decided to do it in July when I visit the Shanghai Expo," Liao Lixia, a Beijinger told the Global Times Sunday. "But, now I'll never get the chance."
The Ministry of Railways began weeding out the Green Skins as early as the 90s, when trains started getting updated nationally. The only remaining Green Skin that runs through Shanghai is the route that links the city to Huaihua in central China's Hunan Province some 1,800 kilometers away, with 25 hours needed to complete a one-way trip.
