Passengers line up to buy tickets at a railway station in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, on Sunday, Jan.1,2012. The online ticket booking system was made to spare travelers the discomforts of buying tickets at stations during peak seasons, but it has been challenged by problems, including high demand.

For many, trying to get a train ticket for a journey home during Spring Festival can seem like one of the labors of Hercules, given the sudden and dramatic swelling of passenger numbers during the most important traditional festival, which falls on Jan 23 this year,

For years, the Ministry of Railways has been criticized for chaotic ticket sales and blamed for the rampant presence of scalpers, who hoarded tickets for the busiest trains during this busiest period and charged passengers exorbitant prices.

And despite their rapid development in the past couple of years, the capacity of the railways can still hardly meet the explosion in passenger demand during Spring Festival.

It is expected that the railways will handle about 235 million trips during the 40 days from Jan 8 to Feb 16, 13.5 million more trips than the Spring Festival period last year. On average, the railways will have to transport some 5 million passengers a day.

So the buying of tickets for all trains either online or by telephone, starting from Jan 1 this year, is a welcome move by the ministry to try and provide passengers with an equal opportunity to buy tickets.

And the requirements that all ticket buyers use their identity cards when booking tickets, and that each card only be used to buy one ticket for a particular train, mean it will be difficult for scalpers to exploit the Spring Festival exodus.

According to online surveys, despite the computer system occasionally crashing, the new booking system has been well received by the majority of passengers,

It is unrealistic to expect the new system to run perfectly and please everyone. However, the railway authorities have been quick to respond to ticket-buyers' complaints.

After criticism that the website was too slow, the efficiency of the website was improved in just a couple of days.

When some complained that they paid online but failed to get a train ticket, they were told that it was because of the limited time permitted for paying online and the money will be returned to their accounts in 15 days.

And when some complained that it was hard to get through on the telephone to book tickets, the authorities immediately increased the number of phones and people available.

However, statistics show that 30 percent of passengers that booked tickets failed to collect their tickets within the required time. Obviously, passengers also need to cooperate with the railways to reduce the waste of resources.

With more technological support, there is reason to believe that the online and telephone ticket-booking service will be even more convenient.