The bureau has announced that ticket prices one day before and one week after the New Year, or traditional Chinese Spring Festival week, would be up to 20 percent higher than usual.

An estimated record 23.8 million passengers are expected to travel on Shanghai bureau trains from January 17 to February 25, a year-on-year increase of 8.3 percent, said Liu Jianmin, deputy director of the bureau.

The bureau hoped that the price hike would help defuse the situation by encouraging passengers to choose other means of transport.

Traditional Chinese New Year is a family reunion holiday with most people busy traveling to and from home before and after the special festival week.

During the peak week from January 24 to 30, seats on all trains leaving the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Fuzhou, all in east China, for Beijing in north China, Zhengzhou in central China, Jinan and Nanchang in east China, Chengdu in southwestern China and Hunan Province in central-south China, will rise somewhere by 15 percent and sleeping car tickets by up to 20 percent.

From February 7 after the Chinese new-year holiday week, ticket prices will rise again at the same rate for 12 days to two weeks, depending on the route.

Tickets for college students and disabled servicemen, however, will remain the same as before.

The bureau predicted that passengers would comprise mainly college students, massive migrant workers as well as tourists.

To cope with fast-expanding passenger flows, 108.5 pairs of passenger trains would be added during the New Year travel season.

The Chinese Ministry of Railway has authorized local railway bureaus to adjust ticket prices but north China's Shenyang Railway Bureau, in exception, has not yet announced any price rises of this kind since the beginning of this year.

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2002)