Returning "motorcycle army" to "scattered soldiers"

"There are fewer motorcyclings returning home this year than in previous years." It is the Spring Festival, from Guangdong back to Guizhou, through Guangxi Wuzhou City East Exit 321 National Highway motorcycles appear to be sparse, talking about the "motorcycle army" that swarmed in the past, Wuzhou on the edge of the 321 National Road even gas station chief Che Huanbin sighed, "In the past, motorcycles were piled up in the Spring Festival gas station, and now this picture has not been seen for several years." ”

The "motorcycle army" can be traced back to the Spring Festival in 2000, when with the rise of online chat tools, many migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta began to ride motorcycles back to their hometowns in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Chongqing and other places for the New Year, and finally converged into a "big army". According to the guangdong provincial transportation department, the size of the "motorcycle army" returning to various provinces and regions at the peak exceeded 1 million, and this unique picture of the Spring Festival has attracted widespread attention from the society and the media in recent years.

National Highway 321 connects the two provinces and regions of Guangdong and Guangdong, and the east exit of Wuzhou City of National Highway 321 is located at the junction of the two provinces, which is the only way for migrant workers from Sichuan, Chongqing, Qiangui and the Pearl River Delta to drive motorcycles to and from the festival and resume work during the Spring Festival, and has become a "window" for observing the social phenomenon of "motorcycle army". According to the statistics provided by the Wuzhou Transportation Department, the "motorcycle army" in Guizhou and Guangdong reached a peak of 250,000 vehicles in 2013, and the inflection point of the decline was in 2014, a decrease of 35,000 vehicles from the previous year to 215,000 vehicles, and since then it has decreased significantly year by year, and it is expected to be only about 12,000 vehicles in 2022.

In less than 10 years, this "motorcycle army" between Guangdong and Guangdong has changed from hundreds of thousands of "scattered soldiers" to three or three pairs, where have they gone?

Every year, Some gas stations along the route are set up for the Spring Festival service stations for the returning "motorcycle army". The Dulian gas station is the first stop from Guangdong to Guizhou. Che Huanbin, who has worked at this gas station for more than ten years, has witnessed the process of the "motorcycle army" from prosperity to decline. Talking about the reasons for the sharp decline of the "motorcycle army", Che Huanbin broke his finger and said several: "The opening of the Nanguang high-speed railway, the change of travel modes such as self-driving cars for migrant workers, carpooling, car rental and so on..."

At the end of 2014, with the opening of the Nanguang and Guiguang high-speed railways connecting Qiandian, Guizhou, Guangdong and other provinces and regions, taking the high-speed rail has become the first choice for many migrant workers to travel during the Spring Festival, and the counties and cities that have exported major labor services in sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Qiangui and other major labor exports have achieved direct high-speed rail connection with the Pearl River Delta region. From the local high-speed rail station, you can reach the major cities in the Pearl River Delta such as Guangzhou, Foshan and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.

Every year during the Spring Festival, the Nanguang Line and the Guiguang Line will increase the logarithm of the trains to meet the travel needs of passengers. According to the data provided by the passenger transport department of China Railway Nanning Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the number of pairs of high-speed railway EMUs in Nanguang and Guiguang was the earliest from 38 pairs at the end of 2014, and by the end of 2016, it exceeded 100 pairs for the first time, reaching 110 pairs, with a two-way departure capacity of more than 150,000 passengers.

In the Spring Festival of 2022, the number of high-speed railways in Nanguang and Guiguang is expected to reach 200 pairs for the first time, and the two-way departure capacity can reach 300,000 passengers, and the transportation capacity investment has reached a record high. This makes more "motorcycle armies" choose to travel by moving car instead.

"Many migrant workers have earned money and bought cars in Guangdong, so they no longer drive motorcycles during the Spring Festival, but drive cars on the highway to return home." Che Huanbin believes that in addition to the factors that stayed in the local area for the New Year due to the epidemic, the decrease in the number of "motorcycle troops" reflects the improvement of the economic income of migrant workers and the improvement of quality of life.

Li Qiang, a native of Fujian County, Guangxi Province, who works in Kaiping City, Guangdong Province, has been joining the "motorcycle army" returning to his hometown for more than 10 years. This year, he plans to carpool with his fellow countrymen or take the train.

With the sharp decline in the number of "motorcycle troops", Zou Dan, an instructor of the three high-speed brigades of the traffic police detachment of the Wuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, who used to be on duty at the Spring Festival Service Station of the Gas Station every year, has shifted the focus of his work to the highway and the section around the Wuzhou South High-speed Railway Station in recent years.

After the start of the Spring Festival this year, Zou Dan and his colleagues continued to do a good job in order maintenance and emergency disposal services for migrant workers at their posts. She said: "Due to the needs of epidemic prevention and control, many migrant workers choose to stay in Guangdong for the New Year, and some factories charter buses to send migrant workers back to their hometowns, which is also the reason for the sharp decline in the 'motorcycle army'." ”

Workers Daily (2022-01-21 01 edition)

Workers Daily reporter Pang Huimin Workers Daily correspondent Zhu Yuandong tang ye