The railway industry should shoulder more responsibility, says an article in Beijing News. An excerpt follows:

 

As the Spring Festival draws near, the price of railway tickets and the difficulty migrant workers face as they try to return home has become a subject of intense debate in the media and among the public.

 

Undoubtedly, the debate about the long-standing railway ticket shortage will once again peak during the Spring Festival holiday season.

 

It is a fact that since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in 1979, the country's railway industry has achieved remarkable progress, contributing a lot to national economic and social development and the improvement of living conditions. Reforms of the industry have been further deepened in recent years, resulting in the improvement of personnel and service quality.

 

A lot of measures taken by the railway industry, such as organizing hearings on whether ticket prices should be raised, and simplifying procedures for group ticket booking, have shown the sector's great care for passengers.

 

However, at a time when the country is committed to promoting a scientific approach to development, the reforms of China's railway industry are yet to be further pushed forward.

 

The world's and China's own practices indicate that the ultimate objective of the country's railway reform should be transforming the sector into a service-oriented, modern public enterprise. During the process, the railway industry's concept of service, awareness and service quality should be greatly strengthened, which will be an important indicator of whether the sector can bear the weight of more public responsibility.

 

To this end, more efforts are yet to be made.

 

The hearing system used to debate ticket prices during the Spring Festival should be repeated and expanded. Being a matter of great significance, a regular hearing system for passenger transport near key dates when there are large-scale population movements remains essential.

 

(China Daily January 5, 2006)