Recently, I saw an online post comparing the square in front of the high-speed rail station in China and Japan.
Content of web posts
Compared with Japan, the square in front of China's high-speed rail station is too big.
The owner finally concluded that this was a manifestation of the backwardness of the railway system, which caused inconvenience to passengers.
Is it really what this post says?
Let's talk about this topic today.
First of all, we have to admit that the square in front of China's high-speed railway station is generally large.
For example, Nanjing South Railway Station covers an area of about 700,000 square meters, and the square in front of the station is very large.
Nanjing South Railway Station
Looking at Nanjing Railway Station, the volume is much smaller than Nanjing South Railway Station, and the square in front of the station is not small.
Nanjing Station
Even for a small station like Nanjing's Lishui High-speed Railway Station, the square in front of the station is very large.
Lishui Station
So the question is, why is the square in front of China's high-speed railway station built so big?
Many people may not be able to say why, but they may think of an event.
That was the 2008 Guangzhou Railway Station passenger detention incident.
In January 2008, southern China was hit by a once-in-a-century snowstorm.
It also coincided with the Spring Festival, and many returnees were delayed due to traffic disruptions.
In Guangzhou, hundreds of thousands of migrant and migrant workers were stranded at the Guangzhou railway station due to a power outage on the southern section of the Beijing-Guangzhou railway, unable to return home for the Chinese New Year.
Look at the photo below, at its peak, 400,000 people gathered at Guangzhou Railway Station.
Guangzhou Railway Station in 2008
At that time, the capacity of the waiting area of Guangzhou Railway Station was only 30,000 people.
Fortunately, the larger square in front of the station provides room for maneuvering, otherwise, the consequences are unimaginable.
Some people may ask, since the trains are suspended, then leave quickly, why are you stranded in the square in front of the station?
This was a limitation of that era.
On the one hand, rail transit at that time was not developed, and evacuated passengers had to rely on ground transportation such as buses and buses, and the evacuation speed would be much slower.
On the other hand, there was no 12306 ticketing system at that time, and the Internet was not as widespread as it is today.
Many people have to go to the scene to buy tickets and refund tickets, which also affects the speed of evacuation.
The Spring Festival suffered a once-in-a-century snowstorm, which led to the most thrilling scene in the history of China's passenger transport.
In fact, for a long time, every Spring Festival in China has not been easy.
Let's look at the old photo of the 1995 Spring Festival below, and passengers can only queue up at the entrance of the ticket hall to buy tickets.
Buying a ticket is not only a test of patience, but also of physical strength and perseverance, and a ticketed passenger falls asleep standing in the queue.
Photo of the Spring Festival in 1995
The rapid surge in passenger flow such as the Spring Festival will inevitably lead to a large number of people queuing.
If there is no big square in front of the station, how to deal with it?
Looking at it today, the square in front of the station seems to be a bit useless.
Technology has changed everything:
Now buy tickets, refund tickets, you can operate through 12306. There is no need for manual queuing, which also reduces the backlog of passenger flow.
Now the punctuality rate of trains and high-speed trains is very high, and it only needs to enter the station half an hour in advance, that is, to arrive and go, and the stay time is greatly reduced.
At present, most of the railway stations and high-speed railway stations in large cities are interconnected with rail transit, and the evacuation capacity has been greatly improved.
Nanjing South Railway Station is home to several subways
Many people take the high-speed rail, let alone go to the square in front of the station, and they have not even left the high-speed rail station.
But we cannot just say that the square in front of the station is useless.
For crowded places such as high-speed rail stations, open evacuation squares are prepared.
We can't blame past designs for the progress of the present.
Otherwise, it is ignorance and forgetfulness.