Something new for this year's Spring Festival, the Ministry of Railways did not declare its usual price hike.
Call it kindness to travelers or call it surprise ministrations. But surprise it certainly was. Last year, when Hao Jinsong, a law student, filed a suit against the railway ministry over the holiday price increases, the railway defeated him, saying the price increase was necessary.
Some say the railway authorities' decision not to raise prices was in response to public pressure while others suspect it was merely a show to please the public.
In any case, a public policy should be judged by what it accomplishes.
Obviously, the railway authorities do not have enough trains to satisfy the market demand over Spring Festival. Even after numerous extra trains were added, many found it difficult if not impossible to get tickets home for the holidays.
The long lines of ticket buyers at the train stations made headlines in newspapers and were at the top of TV news coverage. The lack of an increase in ticket prices certainly did not reduce the crush of would-be ticket buyers. In fact, it might have increased the number, with some waiting for hours, then going away empty-handed.
The high demand and relatively short supply of train tickets created a huge market for scalpers. The scalpers' ticket prices far outdistanced the usual official price hikes, though of course scalpers were doing brisk business in previous years, too.
While the Ministry of Railways is doing the right thing not to increase holiday ticket prices, its employees are not so honorable. Some scalpers are able to buy tickets in large numbers through their railway department connections. The suspected backdoor dealings between railway workers and ticket scouts have long been condemned by the public.
Compared with airline ticket sales systems, railways lag far behind. Plane passengers are able to buy tickets as far as one year in advance. Train tickets are only sold four days in advance.
If the variables for selling train tickets are more complex than for plane tickets, modern computer technology should be able to bridge the differences.
And then there's the issue of service. While most businesses promote their service, the railways do not seem to be much interested in this commodity. Efficiency in ticket selling has not improved in decades.
No wonder people suspect that the difficulty in getting tickets during the holiday rush was produced intentionally by the railways for some unknown purpose.
With tickets in short supply, counterfeiters show more initiative than the railways. Suspects caught for counterfeiting may have sold hundreds of fake tickets.
Of course, fake tickets do not just exist only during the Spring Festival crush, but they are more likely to be sold then. It would be a great loss both in time and money for a passenger found traveling with a fake ticket not to be able to get home.
Even those lucky enough to get tickets probably found travel far from enjoyable. The holiday trains are too crowded for service to be adequate. At least with tickets kept at normal prices, travelers avoid the double insult of paying more for worse service.
Most of the problems could be eliminated if train ticket prices are raised to match market demand. Obviously, this would mean much higher prices.
Yet, this is only a theoretical option. It does not take care of social fairness, which is an important concern in dealing with Spring Festival transportation. If the ticket price were raised to the maximum level, low-income earners could not afford the trip for a family reunion during the festival.
Last year, the railway authorities floated the sleeper ticket prices while keeping the price of non-sleeper seats unchanged. This took care of both efficiency and fairness, but passengers in seats still suffered the difficulty of buying tickets and inferior service quality.
It is unrealistic to expect the country to increase train transportation to satisfy all demands during the Spring Festival. Moreover, such a huge capacity would not be used the rest of the year, causing great waste.
It is also out of the question to change people's habit of going home for the traditional holiday.
Travel problems during the Spring Festival are unlikely to be definitively settled given the special issues involved. But more should be done to find the best solutions. To stop raising the prices of train tickets does not solve the problem, but it's a good first step in easing the agony of Spring Festival travel.
The author, Mao Yushi, is director of the Unirule Institute of Economics
(China Daily March 5, 2007)