Vital to maintain order on public transport vehicles

On Wednesday, a female passenger on a high-speed train, G6078, occupied the window seat even though her ticket was for the aisle seat. She quarreled with the conductor when the latter asked her to shift to her allotted seat. Thepaper.cn comments:

"Why are you sitting on somebody else's seat?"

"Who said this is someone else's seat!"

"You see, it's on your ticket."

"I have a ticket. Do you mean I am traveling without one?"

The woman was traveling from Yongzhou to Guangzhou, both in Guangdong province. And her argument with the conductor was recorded and posted online.

On Thursday morning, the railway police said the female passenger, surnamed Zhou, had violated the Public Order Management and Punishment Law by disturbing the public order on the train, and was fined 200 yuan ($29). The local railway bureau of Guangzhou said on its micro blog that the woman will be put on the blacklist for 180 days.

The police took the right decision by penalizing the woman, as it is the job of law enforcers to make sure those who break the rules are penalized, which in turn will act as deterrence for potential offenders.

But where were the railway policemen when the incident happened? It is their job to protect people's legal rights and interests, and detain suspects for interrogation or to prevent a situation from getting out of control.

We hope the police will intervene in time in the future, instead of taking action after an incident happens.