Barring fresh snowstorms, hope is rekindled for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers desperate to get home to spend Lunar New Year with families
Guangzhou rail station is preparing to resume ticket sales today, with authorities expecting train services to return to normal by Thursday.
Senior Guangzhou Railways Group officials confirmed yesterday that they expected all trains departing from Guangzhou rail station to run on their regular schedules from Thursday - the first day of the Lunar New Year.
'The Beijing-Guangzhou line is back on and passengers will be able to buy tickets five days ahead beginning from Tuesday,' a senior official said yesterday.
The snowstorms across central and southern China - the most severe in half a century - have caused widespread power failures especially in Chenzhou, Hunan province. The power failure in turn forced suspension of rail services and halted trains on the Beijing-Guangzhou railway.
As hundreds of thousands of migrant workers swarmed into Guangzhou to catch trains to go home, the railways group suspended ticket sales in the last days of January, hoping it would ease pressure.