IT worker's ticket browser plug-in upsets railways ministry

When Ni Chao tried to buy a ticket using the Ministry of Railways' online system before last year's Lunar New Year, he failed more than 50 times.

With the website constantly returning a message saying, "the system is busy with too many users", Ni said he had to fill out the ticket information every time he re-sent the request.

"That was really annoying, so I thought I'd develop some kind of tool to save all the trouble," the 27-year-old information technology worker said. "I wrote a script in my spare time, on and off, and it worked. I thought it could help others, so I uploaded it to my personal website on January 9 last year."

That was the genesis of one of the browser plug-ins that have become so popular ahead of this year's Lunar New Year peak travel season.

But his idea also drew some criticism, as Ni was invited to "have tea" - an informal warning - with the authorities, who have blamed the software for disrupting purchases on the website and spreading chaos among anxious ticket buyers.

A migrant worker from Hubei complained to a phone-in radio programme that all train tickets were gone within 50 seconds because the new plug-ins allowed internet users to jump the queue and take them faster than they could be booked through a Ministry of Railways website, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Monday. He said scalpers then resold the tickets, charging a 500 yuan (HK$615) commission for a 200 yuan ticket.