A worker sells train tickets at the Railway Station in Jiangxi Province ahead of Spring Festival. (Xinhua file photo)
The 2011 Spring Festival travel rush will start on January 19th. To cope with the surge in the number of travelers the government has planned measures to guarantee everyone can be for the Lunar New Year's eve (Feb. 2nd).
According to Xian Weixiong, the director of the Guangzhou Bureau of Transportation, since 2008, trains have been made to depart from stations in neighboring cities such as Foshan, Dongguan and Shenzhen so as to reduce pressure on Guangzhou's main railway station. It has succeeded in reducing by one third the number of passengers transiting through Guangzhou.
Xian added that more temporary trains will be scheduled to depart during the night and that passengers with tickets for these train will be asked to wait at the Pazhou Exhibition Complex. This should reduce the daily passenger flow to around 70,000 people.
Drawing on experience from previous years, the authorities will set up 26 temporary shelters to handle large crowds in case rail traffic comes to a halt, a real possibility if weather conditions continue to deteriorate. Together, these shelters would be able to contain approximately 600,000 people.
Finally, people can purchase train tickets via phone by calling the ticket hotlines at 96020088 or 95105105. Tickets should then be picked up at one of the 198 ticket booths set-up throughout the city.
