Temporary waiting room especially set up for child passengers´ safety

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Source: CCTV.com | 02-05-2008 08:42

Many of the passengers who are still waiting in Guangzhou to catch a train home have brought their children with them. Now a temporary waiting room has been set up to make the wait safer for the familys.

The local government's decision to launch a "green channel" for passengers traveling with children has been welcomed by passengers. A special waiting room has been set up in a local exhibition center for use as a temporary shelter for stranded passengers.

Reporter Liu Ying said, "This is a waiting room only for passengers traveling with their children. Volunteers and employees of the local authorities bring them here. There is also a special shuttle service to take these passengers from the waiting room into the train station."

This young couple tells me a volunteer saw them on their way to the railway station and brought them here. The couple wants to take their six-year-old daughter back to their home in Sichuan province. They had earlier thought they might have to give up going home this year.

A passenger heading to Sichuan said, "It's just because the grandparents miss their granddaughter very much and want to see her. Actually we grown-ups don't really want to travel back home with the current situation. But her grandparents haven't seen her for over a year, so we've decided to give it another try despite the problems."

Many other passengers in the waiting room here have had similar experiences. This woman and her one-and-a-half year old grandson said they hoped to go back to their hometown in Jiangxi province. Her ticket was originally dated January 30th.

A passenger heading to Jiangxi said, "We watched the television and saw there were so many people outside the railway station. So we didn't even dare go there."

But now that there's a shuttle bus to take them directly to the railway station, it's a great relief for her because she no longer has to worry about her grandson in the crowds.

The local government's decision to launch a "green channel" for passengers traveling with children has been welcomed by passengers. A special waiting room has been set up in a local exhibition center for use as a temporary shelter for stranded passengers. Since the waiting room was opened on Friday, more than 160 shuttle bus trips have been made between the railway station and the waiting room, carrying over five thousand passengers and their children safely to the station. The staff here also provide the children with milk, biscuits, diapers, clothes and medical treatment. Meanwhile, there is also a mother-infant waiting room inside the railway station, hoping to provide a better environment for children and their parents. For those passengers who have suffered a long and painstaking wait with their children to catch a train home, these services have been a great help and relief.

Editor:Zhang Ning