The annual rush to reunite families for the Spring Festival has
reportedly started early in some areas.
Each winter the public transport system works under extreme
pressure as millions return home, but the peak travel season was
expected to be January 25 to March 5 this year as the festival will
be on February 9.
In Shanghai, however, as a large number of migrant workers are
heading home early for the holiday, it seems to have started weeks
ahead of expectations.
Since January 1, many migrant workers from Sichuan and Anhui
provinces began to go back to their hometowns before the peak
season's arrival.
"These passengers have contributed to massive traffic on routes
to provinces such as Sichuan and Guizhou," said Wang Lushan, a
Shanghai Railway Station official.
Wang noted that the busiest train is the No.1352 heading for
Chengdu in Sichuan, which is already running at full capacity.
As it doesn't have air conditioning its tickets are relatively
cheap, making it more attractive to out-of-town workers, Wang
noted.
From the start of this year, the station began selling tickets
10 days ahead of departure to meet increasing demand. Usually,
passengers can only buy tickets six days prior to departure.
"These days we are much busier than normal," said an officer
surnamed Zheng at the station's ticket office. "The tickets to
Chengdu and Fuyang (in Anhui) are the most popular."
While waiting for his train, a migrant laborer named Wang said
the heavy snow around the year-end suspended the construction
project he was working on.
"Most workers would rather go home as early as they can than
stay in Shanghai without any work to do," Wang said, noting tickets
are cheaper at this time of year.
In other provinces, transport authorities have reported heavier
rail traffic and said they are going all out to ensure safe and
smooth public transport for the festival period.
Hubei announced it would muster a force of 5,000 traffic police
and 500 plainclothes officers to maintain order and crackdown on
traffic-related crime. Shanxi and Gansu provinces also announced an
earlier rush for their railways.
The Ministry of Railways predicted that from January 25 to March
5, traveling by rail nationwide will total 145 million journeys,
which is almost 5 million more than last year's figure. On average,
3.63 million people are traveling by train every day.
(Shanghai Daily, China.org.cn January 5, 2005)