China's expanding high-speed railway makes journeys home easier, cozier

MORE CONVENIENCE

China's transport authorities have also introduced new technologies and services to ensure a smooth and pleasant travel experience for passengers.

Instead of printing and collecting tickets at train stations, passengers can now pass through ticket checks with just their ID cards and facial recognition, as China has introduced an e-ticket system for high-speed railways.

"The e-ticket system has cut the ticket checking time by over 30 percent, efficiently relieving traffic congestion during the travel rush," said Shan Xinghua, chief researcher at the China Academy of Railway Sciences.

A total of 1,020 train stations in the country had adopted the system by Jan 10.

Ticket booking is also more customer-friendly thanks to a series of improvements by 12306, the country's official online railway ticket-booking platform, including increasing its ticket capacity, extending daily work hours and introducing a waitlist function to improve booking efficiency.

In addition, to improve people's travel experience, new services such as food ordering and seat selection are now available on the ticket-booking platform.

"The passenger flow at Fuyang West Station can reach 43,000 people per day, and the station is expected to receive about 28,000 passengers at the peak of the Spring Festival travel rush," said Zhang Yuliang, head of the station.

"We are confident in meeting the strong transport needs and serving passengers well," Zhang added.