As Chinese scramble for train tickets for Lunar New Year, high-speed sleepers get cold shoulder
Limited enthusiasm on debut of new rail service, with many passengers appearing to favour slower, cheaper options and even budget flights
People snapped up rail tickets yesterday as bookings opened for the Lunar New Year's Eve services, but there was limited enthusiasm for the debut of the new high-speed sleeper services.
Unlike other trains, which offer bookings 60 days in advance, the new long-haul high-speed sleepers can be booked 30 days in advance at most - meaning passengers must wait until mid-January to book for the holiday's peak travel period
However, on Saturday, tickets went on sale for the period from the service's launch on January 1 up to January 18.
By yesterday, only half of the tickets for the January 1 high-speed sleeper service from Beijing West to Shenzhen North and Guangzhou South had been sold, according to the railway authorities' official website.
That contrasted poorly with two other slower trains on the same day that feature sleeper cars. All seats and sleepers were snapped up and only standing tickets remained available for Z13 and Z201 trains from Beijing to Guangzhou. These trains take 21 hours and 44 minutes to complete the journey - almost double the 11 hours the high-speed soft sleeper takes, itself about 1.5 hours slower than other high-speed trains.
High-speed soft sleeper tickets were on sale for 1,120 yuan (HK$1,410) to Guangzhou and 1,190 yuan to Shenzhen.
Second-class seats were 709 yuan to Guangzhou and 756 yuan to Shenzhen. On the slower trains soft sleepers cost 784 yuan, hard sleepers 441 yuan and hard seats 251 yuan. Cheap flights from Beijing to Guangzhou - a journey of about three-and-a-half hours - on January 1 can be found for 526 yuan.
Frequent business traveller Mars Ma said the price of the high-speed sleeper option appeared reasonable.
However, he added: "Discounted flight tickets are so much cheaper and three times faster."
For those who opted for more conventional high-speed or slower trains to return home for the holiday, securing tickets remained as challenging as in past years, with many services selling out within minutes of going on sale.
No tickets were left for trains from Shanghai to Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi on Lunar New Year's Eve. Tickets were also sold out for trains - high-speed and conventional - from Guangzhou to Zhumadian , even for standing passengers.
"I'm thinking of driving home instead as second-class high-speed rail tickets during the Lunar New Year have all gone," said Ma, who is from Zhumadian in Henan province.
"It costs our family of three almost 2,000 yuan to complete the five-hour journey but driving will take 13 hours and cost just 1,200 yuan. If the government waives the toll charge during the Lunar New Year, the cost is only 600 yuan for us."
