Railway ticket prices will not be raised starting from this year's Spring Festival peak travel season, Wang Yongping, spokesperson with China's Ministry of Railways, said today.

 

Railway ticket prices are a hot topic in China, where trains are a basic mode of transportation for many of the country's 1.3 billion people, especially during the Spring Festival period, also known as the Lunar New Year.

 

The country's economic planning authority in early 2002 set a 20 percent floating range on railway ticket prices during the peak season.

 

China's railways have routinely raised fares by as much as 30 percent during the past Spring Festivals, which begins on February 2 this year. This practice has generated frequent customer complaints of price gouging.

 

Railway officials once said the price increases were necessary because China's railways were deep in debt and had to bear an added holiday burden of overtime pay and extra trains.

 

A law graduate from China University of Politics and Law in Beijing, Hao Jingsong, has filed two lawsuits against the ministry, demanding a 0.50 yuan (4 US cents) ticket refund from the ministry.

 

"I bought a railway ticket for 2 yuan on January 21 during the annual Spring Festival," he told Beijing's Legal Daily. "The ticket was 33 percent over the normal price, which is beyond the 20 percent floating range."

 

The ministry said it was entitled to set the price.

 

The country's railway system faces a mammoth challenge at the upcoming Spring Festival when a record 156 million passengers are expected to travel via trains.

 

He huawu, an engineer in chief with the ministry, said in a previous report that the railway ticket price issue will be eased in five years when China will have more speedy railways and scientific transfer hubs.

 

(Shanghai Daily January 10, 2007)