Travel peak tests transport

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 01-21-2009 09:17

Click for more news in China Today>>

It's now over ten days into the Spring Festival travel peak. Statistics show the homeward flow of students has already begun to fall. Authorities are taking measures to meet passenger demand, cracking down on ticket scalping and adopting a fast pass system for clearing customs.

It's now over ten days into the Spring Festival travel peak.  Statistics show the homeward flow of students has already  begun to fall.

Over 4.8 million train journeys were made across China on Tuesday alone. The volume of student passengers has dropped to just one quarter of the figure at the beginning of the peak travel period. But there are still huge numbers of migrant workers and people going home to visit their families.

Tickets for trains leaving major transportation hubs before Spring Festival are already sold out. To ensure that people are able to make it home in time for the holiday, police are working hard to target tickets scalpers.

Railway police in Shanghai say they uncovered the biggest ticket scalping case of the year on Monday. A couple has been arrested, charged with running an illegal ticketing agency and selling tickets with a surcharge of 50 to 130 yuan each.

Police say they have arrested almost 140 scalpers in Shanghai alone, and recovered tickets valued at more than 180 thousand yuan.

To save time for passengers in Beijing, a self-service immigration system has been adopted at Capital Airport. Passengers from the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions can use the system, reducing customs clearance time by two-thirds.

Editor:Liu Anqi