Holiday rail ticket rush reflects same old woes

In Wuhan, college students were first hit by the rush, as many schools' winter break starts from January 10 to 17.

As more than 70 percent of the 1 million resident students there were expected to go home by train, local railway authorities set up ticket agents on campus, opened more ticket booths for students at stations and offered special student trains.

But many still found it difficult to get tickets, especially to Urumqi, Qingdao, Jinan, Harbin, Zhanjiang and Nanning.

The Railway Ministry expects 188 million people to travel during the travel rush, up 8 percent from last year, with daily traffic expected to be 4.7 million people.

Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou are the "most bustling hubs" before the Spring Festival, which falls on January 26, so authorities have added 319 temporary express passenger trains this year.

Railway Minister Liu Zhijun said last week a "historic change" would be evident in 2012 when intensive investment would extend total track by 110,000 kilometers, including 13,000 kilometers of passenger lines on which trains could run 200-350 kilometers per hour.

Editor:Liu Anqi