Another batch of trains has become high-speed trains, but I miss the green train a little

Although this year's Spring Festival has not yet officially arrived, there are significantly more passengers in a hurry with large bags and small bags in the railway stations of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The migrant workers, who were busy from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, gradually embarked on the journey of returning home.

If there are no accidents, trains to the whole country will still be the main force of this year's Spring Festival.

The relevant person in charge of the China Railway Group revealed at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on January 16 that this year's Spring Festival transportation is expected to send 480 million passengers across the country, 37.9% higher than the 348 million passengers in 2023.

The Spring Festival has not officially arrived, and the train station has been

It was crowded with people returning home. (Photo/Photo by New Weekly reporter Lianghao)

At the same time as the Spring Festival, there is also a new train schedule officially implemented by the national railway from 0:00 on January 10 this year. After this map adjustment, the national railway arranges 11,149 passenger trains every day, an increase of 233 from before. Although the number of trains running has increased overall, some people have found that the number of normal-speed trains, which we often refer to as "green cars", is decreasing.

On major social platforms, the topic of "reducing green cars" has once again sparked discussion. Some railway fans sorted out the "optimized" general-speed trains in the process of map adjustment, listing the past and present lives of these trains, and some enthusiasts bought tickets in advance to check in these disappearing "green cars" before the map adjustment, and launched a commemorative operation video, which made netizens watching through the screen feel envious.

Some railway fans specially go to "check in" soon

The number of normal speed trains that have been optimized and upgraded. (Photo/Bilibili@Convex Peak)

The voice of nostalgia is mixed with a lot of voices complaining that train tickets have "become expensive".

Admittedly, the upgraded new trains have a more comfortable riding experience, but the fares have also risen significantly. Many netizens believe that some of the original running general-speed train schedules are actually enough to meet the daily travel needs and are more cost-effective.

01

A "green car" with good quality and low price,

Not all "optimized"

Some people compared the train timetable before and after the map adjustment and found that many direct trains starting with "Z" were upgraded to a new generation of "Fuxing" bullet trains after the map adjustment, and the express (K) and express (T) did not change much.

Many of these are meaningful trains. For example, the Z1/2 train that goes from Beijing West to Changsha and only stops at 4 stations on the way is a "benchmark car" in the circle of railway enthusiasts, and often appears in the list of trains that railway fans "must check in" in this life.

Nowadays, the Z1/2 train has been upgraded to a centralized power EMU, and the train number has also been renamed D1/2 after the map adjustment. Although there is no change in the route and stops, the familiar ordinary speed train is suddenly upgraded to a bullet train, which still makes the regular passengers of this train a little unaccustomed.

Equally unaccustomed is the ticket price. Originally, the Z1/2 train was completed, and the hard seat fare and upper berth hard sleeper fare were only 189.5 yuan and 322.5 yuan respectively, and the upgraded second-class seat and second-class sleeper upper berth prices rose to 245 yuan and 382 yuan respectively.

But this price currently displayed on the 12306App is even only a discounted price. 

According to the fare list released by the China Railway Group, if you experience D1/2 full journey at the original price, then you need to spend 490 yuan to buy a second-class ticket, and the second-class sleeper is even as high as 735 yuan, both of which are more than twice the price of the "green car" before the map.

Similar situations are not uncommon in previous surveys.

After all, after upgrading from the "green car", all EMU trains that run are completely non-smoking are running, and the fare that rises in response to the sound is actually the same as that of ordinary high-speed rail bullet trains.

What really makes people want to complain is that some of the "more expensive" new trains have not been compressed in exchange for time costs, and there are even individual trains, and the upgraded running time is exactly the same as the original.

After this rotation chart, many of them start with "Z".

The direct train was upgraded to bullet train and reused

The new CR200J EMU. (Photo/Visual China)

When the railway 12306 App was upgraded and revised in December last year, it caused a wide range of discussions on fares - the discount information of different trains displayed in the new version of the App made "Is the high-speed rail fare cheaper" quickly on the hot search.

And the train upgrade due to the "map adjustment" has made this problem more clearly pointed: why is the ticket price of the high-speed rail bullet train discounted or so expensive?

In fact, as early as 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has "loosened" the pricing power of railways, delegating the pricing power of high-speed EMU trains to China Railway Corporation, and the pricing of non-high-speed rail trains still needs to be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

In other words, in the division of roles of railways, the market part belongs to high-speed rail, and the public interest part is more borne by traditional trains.

In fact, the fare of China's ordinary speed train has indeed "not risen" for many years.

In 1995, China Railway began to implement a fare benchmark rate of 0.05861 yuan per person per kilometer (i.e., hard-seat fare) - that is, the pricing standard of about 6 cents per kilometer for ordinary speed trains, which has been implemented for nearly 30 years.

The "expensive" of high-speed rail also has its own reason.

Previously, Zhao Jian, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Jiaotong University, said in an interview with Jiemian News that the high-speed rail itself requires a lot of upfront investment, basically relying on loans to build, and most of the opened lines have not yet achieved profitability.

It can be said that the nature of high-speed rail has been a "commercial project" from the beginning, and its differentiated advantages lie in comfort, convenience and speed, taking into account the inclusiveness of transportation and cost performance, which is the "track" exclusive to ordinary speed trains.

High-speed rail fares are not static,

Instead, a floating fare is implemented. (Photo/Visual China)

02

high-speed rail and ordinary railway,

There is no such thing as a zero-sum game

Of course, the loneliness of the ordinary speed train is just a natural selection of natural selection due to the changes of the times and technological development.

The development of the times cannot be reversed, and it is understandable that high-speed rail bullet trains dominate the railway network. When more and more places can be reached by high-speed rail, people are also willing to enjoy the convenient travel experience, and gradually ignore the existence of "green cars".

Even in the choice of buying tickets, most people will habitually tick "only look at the high-speed rail/bullet train fare", and automatically classify the ordinary speed train as the "plan Z" after not being able to buy a high-speed rail ticket.

Under this trend, the number of ordinary speed trains is also decreasing. Under a news article related to the train map, some netizens who frequently travel between Changsha and Yueyang complained in the comment area that there were dozens of "green cars" between the two places a few years ago, "but now there are only a dozen".

The more high-speed trains open, the more and more trains are opened

It's getting less. (Photo/Visual China)

People who are familiar with train lines gradually find that on important railway trunk lines such as the Beijing-Guangzhou Line and the Beijing-Shanghai Line, the presence of general-speed trains is even lower.

Some of the "green car" lines are still slowly "braking", and some lines, along with the railway station, have quickly become history.

In October last year, countless people poured into Foshan Railway Station to commemorate the last "green car" from here - in order to cooperate with the construction of the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang high-speed railway, the century-old station was suspended from operation with immediate effect.

It must be recognized that railway construction is not only the engine of development, but also the need for people's livelihood. But in this era, is there really no need for a "green car"?

Not.

Compared with high-speed rail, the most significant characteristics of general-speed trains are more stops, lower fares, and higher number of carriers. In the central and western regions, where the geographical location is relatively complex, railway travel is better than road travel in many cases, and general-speed trains are still the main force of railway transportation.

What's more, the times are moving forward at a high speed, and there are always people living at a low speed.

Even in coastal areas where high-speed trains are dotted, there are still many people who still prefer to travel by ordinary speed trains, such as migrant workers who only go home once a year, and college students who have not yet returned to their hometowns to make a living independently.

Not everyone can afford to spend money on high-speed rail.

Pictured on January 4, 2024,

One EMU and one train

At the same time, it is parked on the platform of Guangzhou Railway Station.

(Photo/Photo by New Weekly reporter Lianghao)

In the era when there was no high-speed rail, people could only take the green train to distant destinations, which made the railway have a strong public welfare color.

Later, the railway continued to speed up, and the traditional green car has long been retired and has become an exhibit in major railway museums. The train carriage pulled by the locomotive was also upgraded to today's air-conditioned Type 25 passenger car, which galloped all the way on the land of China and carried many people's precious travel memories.

In such a relatively "low-speed" era, the passengers' eating, drinking, and lazar were all on the car. Strangers from the north and south of the river, staggered in a short period of time and space, crossed the Yangtze River and the Yellow River together, crossed the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, and the life in the carriage has also become a "very distinctive" Chinese cultural symbol in our memory.

This kind of common memory hidden in the depths of your and my memories is completely different from the various contradictions caused by today's high-speed rail bullet train - such as the "silent car" option on the high-speed rail, some people are happy and some people are worried and complain.

And whenever the various disputes on the high-speed train are infinitely amplified in the field of public opinion, there will always be people who miss the extraordinarily intimate physical and emotional relationship between people on the slow train in the past: it seems that as the train becomes faster and faster, our patience is also speeding and becoming a less durable consumable.

The various disputes that occurred on the high-speed rail EMU,

The vast majority will be in the arena of public opinion

Fermentation gradually. (Picture/video screenshot)

But between the high-speed railway, which travels thousands of miles a day, and the slow, general-speed train, it has never been a zero-sum game that is intolerable to each other.

The concept of physical distance and time is rapidly compressed by high-speed rail, and ordinary people who spend part of their lives on high-speed rail will always want to slow down.

Proofreading: Yang Chao, Operation: Lu Zirui, Typesetting: Tan Xin

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