CRI听力: High-Speed Soft-Sleepers Unpopular

High-Speed trains are expected to begin operating between Shanghai and Chongqing and Shanghai and Chengdu from January 11, offering China's most luxurious sleeper facilities. Tickets for the two lines have been sold since the beginning of January, yet tickets for soft-sleeper carriages seem to have little appeal to travelers.

Zhang Wan takes a closer look.



The new high-speed railway from Shanghai to Chengdu will cost travelers a journey time of a mere nine hours, which is less than a fourth of the current travel time of over 40 hours.

According to a Xinhua report, all seats in the luxury soft-sleeper carriages are equipped with individual video systems. Passengers can also adjust air-conditioning and lighting, and there is also a mini-meeting room in the carriage.

In some ticket agencies in Shanghai, however, only less than ten percent of the soft-sleeper tickets have been sold, while all the tickets for cheaper seats of the high-speed-trains from Shanghai to Chengdu and Chongqing have been sold out.

One clerk in a ticket office says few ticket buyers ask for the soft-sleeper ticket. Why don't people buy the tickets if they are complaining how hard it is to get train tickets during the run-up to the Spring Festival? One ticket buyer says:

"The ticket will cost more than 1,000 yuan and is too expensive. If I'm going to pay that price, I would rather travel by plane. Airfare for the trip would only cost 700 or 800 yuan."

"The prices are so high. We migrant workers don't dare to imagine paying that price for a trip."

Many people say the high ticket price discourages potential passengers. A ticket for a place on a luxury soft-sleeper between Shanghai and Chengdu costs about 2,330 yuan, or about 340 US dollars, while an economy class air ticket costs about 1,500 yuan. No wonder this prospective traveler says:

"If I can get a cheap ticket, I will be able to return home for family reunion. If I can't, I will buy an air ticket to go back home to see my parents. But I won't buy that expensive soft-sleeper high-speed-rail ticket."

For the two new high-speed railways, more than 600 tickets are available for each train, however, only 20 percent of the tickets are the second-class tickets which people rush to buy, the rest of the tickets are for the soft-sleeper carriages.

Some people say it's not necessary to provide these types of luxury seats, because that gives less room for cheaper seats due to the space constraints. And this could result in more difficulties in purchasing train tickets – especially during the Spring Festival when hundreds of millions of migrants travel to spend the festival together with families.

Under mass criticism, the Shanghai Railway Bureau was reported by the Shanghai Evening Post as saying that luxury seats on the two trains commuting between Shanghai and Beijing will no longer be available from January 11.

Hu Xingdou, an expert from the Beijing Institute of Technology, says that transportation improvements should take into account the real needs of the general public. He suggests authorities add more trains and new lines – such as express and direct lines – as passengers care more about speed and reasonable comfort rather than a luxurious train experience.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.