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Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Holy smokes: Just 6 cm of rail per person
By Cheng Yunjie |
January 16, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ARMED police joined regular patrol officers and police dogs sniffed around luggage offices and platforms for prohibited goods.
At first sight, the security at Beijing Railway station, China's busiest transport center before the Lunar New Year, was roughly the same as last year. But for many railway staff, this year's 40-day Spring Festival passenger rush is a "real test" of their capability to promote harmony as the global financial crisis has aggravated the winter blues.
The Railway Minister predicted the first passenger peak to come on January 20 to 24. New Year's Day is January 26.
Public grumbling over the difficulties of obtaining a tickets, however, have reached a clamor on the Internet following the sudden death of a man in his 60s last Wednesday in a ticket office of the Chengzhan Railway Station, Huangzhou.
While police are investigating the man's identity and cause of death, people in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai compiled on-line ticket purchase guidebooks that received public praise, but once again put railway authorities in the hot seat.
There were compliments too. The two new temporary toilets set up in the Hangzhou Railway Station, for instance, were described as "the warmth in the severe cold."
Chai Zeliang, deputy chief of the Beijing Bureau of the Railroad Police, says that whatever criticisms passengers might have, one principle for all railway staff was "to exercise restraint."
Still, by Chai's own admission, complaints, grumbles, even bickering happen almost every day. "The truth is that both passengers and railway staff were stressed as China's railway capacity falls far behind demand," Chai said.
Almost 188 million people are expected to travel by train in the holiday season, up 8 percent or 13.73 million from last year. The daily rail traffic will grow by 340,000 people to a record average high of 4.7 million.
One hard fact for travelers banking on trains is the per-capita railway mileage of only 6 cm, shorter than a cigarette. What's worse, many rail tracks must serve dual purposes as passenger and freight transport.
The loudest public complaint zeroed in on ticket shortages as freezing temperatures and biting winds compounded the resentment of those standing in the open air for hours. The railway authorities, however, deemed safety the top priority concerning harmony.
In a mobilization order issued in early January, China's Railroad Police Authority under the Railway Ministry urged its branches across the country to stay high alert for "the unpredictable."
The top priority, it said, was to ward off hidden risks from hazardous, combustible and explosive articles as their effects could be disastrous. The second concern was to prevent stampedes that might lead to mass injuries or deaths. Last was to beware of foul weather.
One quiet change Xinhua learned about from Railway police was that high-speed trains had taken the back seat this year as police resources were transferred to standard and temporary trains to safeguard rural migrants, students and low-paid workers.
Since the launch of high-speed rail services in 2006, the safety of trains labeled CRH (China Railway High-speed) and running at 200 to 350 kmh have been cause for concern.
Although CRH trains share the same number of police officers with standard and temporary trains, resources have been deliberately deployed in the latter.
Practice over the past three years showed that ordinary and temporary trains, known as puke and linke, which charged less, had more stops and ran the slowest, were more vulnerable to thefts and crimes.
When the economy was solid and brisk, rural migrants usually went home for a short break. But this time, with little hope of returning immediately, many migrants are actually moving their "homes" and traveling with more valuables.
Their luggage includes buckets, electric fans, rice cookers, TVs and clothes hangers.
As export-oriented companies on the eastern coast have gone broke or shut down temporarily, rural migrants have been returning home since early November.
(The author is a Xinhua writer.)
At first sight, the security at Beijing Railway station, China's busiest transport center before the Lunar New Year, was roughly the same as last year. But for many railway staff, this year's 40-day Spring Festival passenger rush is a "real test" of their capability to promote harmony as the global financial crisis has aggravated the winter blues.
The Railway Minister predicted the first passenger peak to come on January 20 to 24. New Year's Day is January 26.
Public grumbling over the difficulties of obtaining a tickets, however, have reached a clamor on the Internet following the sudden death of a man in his 60s last Wednesday in a ticket office of the Chengzhan Railway Station, Huangzhou.
While police are investigating the man's identity and cause of death, people in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai compiled on-line ticket purchase guidebooks that received public praise, but once again put railway authorities in the hot seat.
There were compliments too. The two new temporary toilets set up in the Hangzhou Railway Station, for instance, were described as "the warmth in the severe cold."
Chai Zeliang, deputy chief of the Beijing Bureau of the Railroad Police, says that whatever criticisms passengers might have, one principle for all railway staff was "to exercise restraint."
Still, by Chai's own admission, complaints, grumbles, even bickering happen almost every day. "The truth is that both passengers and railway staff were stressed as China's railway capacity falls far behind demand," Chai said.
Almost 188 million people are expected to travel by train in the holiday season, up 8 percent or 13.73 million from last year. The daily rail traffic will grow by 340,000 people to a record average high of 4.7 million.
One hard fact for travelers banking on trains is the per-capita railway mileage of only 6 cm, shorter than a cigarette. What's worse, many rail tracks must serve dual purposes as passenger and freight transport.
The loudest public complaint zeroed in on ticket shortages as freezing temperatures and biting winds compounded the resentment of those standing in the open air for hours. The railway authorities, however, deemed safety the top priority concerning harmony.
In a mobilization order issued in early January, China's Railroad Police Authority under the Railway Ministry urged its branches across the country to stay high alert for "the unpredictable."
The top priority, it said, was to ward off hidden risks from hazardous, combustible and explosive articles as their effects could be disastrous. The second concern was to prevent stampedes that might lead to mass injuries or deaths. Last was to beware of foul weather.
One quiet change Xinhua learned about from Railway police was that high-speed trains had taken the back seat this year as police resources were transferred to standard and temporary trains to safeguard rural migrants, students and low-paid workers.
Since the launch of high-speed rail services in 2006, the safety of trains labeled CRH (China Railway High-speed) and running at 200 to 350 kmh have been cause for concern.
Although CRH trains share the same number of police officers with standard and temporary trains, resources have been deliberately deployed in the latter.
Practice over the past three years showed that ordinary and temporary trains, known as puke and linke, which charged less, had more stops and ran the slowest, were more vulnerable to thefts and crimes.
When the economy was solid and brisk, rural migrants usually went home for a short break. But this time, with little hope of returning immediately, many migrants are actually moving their "homes" and traveling with more valuables.
Their luggage includes buckets, electric fans, rice cookers, TVs and clothes hangers.
As export-oriented companies on the eastern coast have gone broke or shut down temporarily, rural migrants have been returning home since early November.
(The author is a Xinhua writer.)
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