一对夫妻帮农民工购票被捕

A couple in Guangdong was detained for booking train tickets online and selling them for 10 yuan extra to migrant workers who want to return home for Spring Festival.

But migrant workers say they feel sorry for the couple.

Last year China's railway system carried out an online ticket-booking system and a real name ticket purchasing system in an effort to crack down on train ticket scalpers and make it more convenient to buy train tickets.

However, migrant workers, who comprise the majority of the passengers find it even harder to book a train ticket because most of them don't have a computer or access to the internet.

What's worse, sale of tickets for a given date opens two days before they can be purchased from a ticket counter. Compared with people with easy access to the internet, migrant workers, who are most sensitive to prices and most eager to get a train ticket, lose out at the starting line in the race to buy a ticket.

Therefore in Guangdong Province, a man surnamed Zhong started to help computer illiterate migrant workers navigate the railway's ticketing website in November. Zhong used the workers' ID cards to purchase tickets in their name, charging 10 yuan, that's about 1.60 US dollars for his service.

As more migrants sought Zhong's help, his wife surnamed Ye was also recruited to make online purchases.

Local railway police discovered the couple's business this month and arrested the couple for scalping.

The railway police said on its Sina Weibo that the couple was arrested on criminal charges, which could bring a sentence of up to three years and a fine of up to five times the total value of the tickets.

The couple's ticketing service is considered serious because it involved more than 5,000 yuan.

But the case triggered a debate on whether the two are scalpers. Let's take a listen.

"The punishment for train ticket scalpers aims to crackdown on the disruption of normal social order. The couple didn't disrupt social order but helped migrant workers. What's more, under the real-name system, the ownership of the tickets hasn't been changed from the very beginning. So the couple just acted as a ticket agency."

"The law on ticket scalping was implemented before 1999. At that time, real-name system and online purchase didn't exist. The lawmakers couldn't predict how the methods of ticket purchase would change when they were drafting the law. So it requires the law enforcement officials to take these changes into consideration now."

"Personally, I don't support the couple's deeds. They've collected so many people's ID card to book tickets. What if they lost these ID cards? "