The Spring Festival transport peak will start on January 11 and continue until February 19, according to the Shanghai railway authority.

Tickets for the period will go on sale on January 1 and each person is limited to five tickets, the railway authority announced yesterday.

During the 40-day Spring Festival transport peak, Shanghai Railway Station and Shanghai South Railway Station will serve a total of 6.65 million passengers, an increase of 8 percent compared with the transport peak from this year's Chinese Lunar New Year holiday.

Passenger numbers are expected to peak on January 22 and 23 – two days prior to Lunar New Year's Eve – when the number of travelers will reach up to 220,000 daily, the railway authority said.

Shanghai railway departments will open 465 ticket windows throughout the city to deal with the anticipated crowds. It is 160 more windows than usual and 45 more than the 2008 Spring Festival. There are also 10 ticket windows especially for students.

In addition, three temporary ticket offices will be set up at the northern plaza of Shanghai South Railway Station, and the southern plaza and northern plaza of Shanghai Railway Station.

The railway authority said that trains from Shanghai to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, as well as northeastern and northwestern China will be in great demand. Passengers going to these destinations are advised to purchase tickets in advance.

Alarmed by severe snowstorms around the 2008 Chinese New Year, the Shanghai railway authority said it had worked out emergency plans that would enable every traveler to return home for the country's most important festival.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Railways asked railway police departments around the country to strengthen supervision on ticket scalping. Any railway bureau or railway station that is found involved in ticket scalping of large quantities will have its license revoked, it said.

(Shanghai Daily December 16, 2008)