According to China Railway Guangzhou Group, this year's May Day holiday transportation period will be from April 29 to May 6, totaling 8 days, with tickets for the first day of the holiday (May 1) officially on sale on April 17.
The group expects to transport 20.2 million passengers during the May Day holiday, with an average of 2.52 million passengers per day, a year-on-year increase of 3.3 percent, and a 26.1 percent increase compared to 2019.
To meet the travel demands of the public, the group has significantly increased its transportation capacity through measures such as coupling multiple high-speed trains, adding train carriages to regular passenger trains, and operating overnight high-speed trains. They have increased capacity in various directions, including between Hunan and Guangdong, Guangzhou-Shenzhen to Wuhan, Nanning, Kunming, Chengdu-Chongqing, Guangzhou-Shenzhen to Chaoshan, Zhanjiang, Changsha to western Hunan, and more.
The Group has also continued to improve the station and onboard dining services. With the weather warming up, the ice-blended series of milk tea has become popular.
In addition, based on passenger dining preferences gleaned from years of high-speed rail dining data, the railway food provider has launched over 50 varieties of home-style dishes, which mainly consist of Hunan and Cantonese cuisines, supplemented by Sichuan, Fujian, and Huaiyang cuisines. For instance, there are Guangdong-style shrimp combos, Sichuan-style fish-flavored shredded pork combos, Hunan-style mixed waxed meat combos, and Huaiyang-style lion's head meatball combos. Passengers can place orders by scanning the QR code on the armrests of seats.
China Railway responds to instant sellout of May Day tickets
Starting April 17, 12306 China Railway began selling tickets for the May Day holiday. In response to online reports about certain trains selling out instantly, a spokesperson of the China Railway suggested that passengers travel during off-peak periods and choose alternative routes to increase the chances of ticket availability. Additionally, passengers can opt for standby ticket purchases or transfer options to improve their chances of securing tickets.
The railway department will also dynamically optimize and adjust train operation plans based on pre-sale and standby ticket data from 12306 China Railway, promptly increasing passenger trains on popular routes, directions, and time periods, to meet the holiday travel needs of passengers.
The railway department reminds passengers that the 12306 China Railway website (including the mobile app) is the only official online ticket sales platform of China Railway. No third-party platforms are authorized to sell train tickets. Purchasing tickets through third-party platforms may not only involve additional fees and bundled sales services but also pose risks of personal privacy information leakage.
Passengers are advised to purchase tickets through official channels, such as the official 12306 China Railway website and the "12306 China Railway" official app. They are also suggested to confirm that the payment recipient is "China Railway Network Co., Ltd.", so as to avoid difficulties in receiving refunds or making changes later on.
Editors | Monica Liu, Will, Lydia Liu, James
