The introduction of women-only carriages last week on two direct trains between Shanghai and Beijing, has failed to capture the imagination of travelers, the Beijing Times said on Friday.

Two special sleeping carriages, with eight cushioned berths were set aside for female passengers on Feb. 1 on each of the trains, dubbed Z5/Z6 and Z21/Z22 respectively, in a move to create a more comfortable and private space.

Officials at Beijing Railway Station said that public indifference is due partly to a lack of awareness about the service among female passengers. The newspaper also reports that tickets for the special carriages are only sold at one window of the Beijing Railway Station.

Ticket fares will not be raised for the special carriages, the station official told the paper. He believes as more and more passengers become aware of the new service, it could eventually be available permanently.

Even if only one ticket for a woman-only carriage is sold, the carriage will be out of bounds for male passengers. And if no ticket is sold a day before the train's departure, all berths of the carriage will probably be sold to male travelers.

If more single female passengers need special berths, it is possible that additional ones could be arranged.

Related reports said the new service has been hailed by some female travelers but doubted by some of their male peers.

Some female travelers said they often felt embarrassed when taking sleeping carriages with cushioned berths.

"I felt better with hard-berth sleeping carriages which were open. But in a closed carriage with cushioned berths, I often felt uncomfortable at the presence of male travelers," Miss Feng said.

"Once I wore a skirt and happened to take an upper berth. I had to wait until there were no male travelers inside the carriage before climbing up," said Miss Qiao, who often goes on business trips by train.

However, it seems that the anxiety of female travelers is not understood by their male peers.

Some male travelers believe that if strangers of both sexes spend a journey together in one carriage, it will create a harmonious atmosphere.

"Haven't many romances happened when a man and a woman have traveled together?" said a mischievous young man surnamed Wang.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2006)