From June 15, a number of high-speed rail lines will be adjusted, with higher ceiling fares and lower discounted fares.
Recently, the official website of Railway 12306 issued four price adjustment announcements. The announcement pointed out that in order to further improve the operation quality of high-speed rail and meet the different travel needs of passengers, it was decided that from June 15, 2024, the announced fares of EMU trains with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour and above running on the Wuhan-Guangzhou section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway, the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway, and the Hangzhou-Ningbo section of the Hangzhou-Shenzhen railway will be optimized and adjusted.
Four high-speed rail lines will be adjusted
Prices go up and down
According to the comparison of the surging news reporters, on the whole, some of the adjusted fare caps (i.e., "published fares") of the four routes have increased compared with the current fares. Taking the Hangzhou-Ningbo section of the Hangzhou-Shenzhen Railway as an example, the second-class ticket price from Hangzhou East Railway Station to Ningbo Station will be 85 yuan from June 15, an increase of about 19.72% compared with the current announced ticket price of 71 yuan.
Hangzhou-Ningbo section of Hangzhou-Shenzhen Railway fare list
Taking the Hangzhou-long section of the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway as an example, the second-class ticket price from Hangzhou East Railway Station to Changsha South Railway Station will be 485 yuan from June 15, an increase of about 19.75% compared with the current announced ticket price of 405 yuan. The second-class ticket price from Yiwu Station to Changsha South Railway Station will be 405 yuan from June 15, an increase of about 12.66% compared with the current announced ticket price of 359.5 yuan.
Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway Hangzhou-long section fare table
Taking the Shanghai-Hangzhou section of the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway as an example, the second-class ticket price from Shanghai Hongqiao Station to Hangzhou East Railway Station will be 87 yuan from June 15, an increase of about 19.18% compared with the current published ticket price of 73 yuan.
Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway Shanghai-Hangzhou section fare list
Taking the Wuguang section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway as an example, the second-class ticket price from Wuhan Station to Guangzhou South Railway Station will be 553 yuan from June 15, an increase of about 19.31% compared with the current announced ticket price of 463.5 yuan. The second-class ticket price from Changsha South Railway Station to Guangzhou South Railway Station will be 377 yuan from June 15, an increase of 20.06% compared with the current announced ticket price of 314 yuan.
Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway Wuguang section of the fare list
At the same time, the announcement also cites a number of examples of minimum fare reductions.
According to the Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd. issued by the Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd., the minimum ticket price for the second-class seat from Wuhan Station to Guangzhou South Railway Station is 304 yuan, which is about 34% lower than the current fare. According to the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd. issued by the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd., the minimum fare for a second-class seat from Shanghai Hongqiao Station to Hangzhou East Railway Station is 48 yuan, which is about 34% lower than the current fare. According to the Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Line Zhejiang Co., Ltd., Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Line Jiangxi Co., Ltd., and Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Line Hunan Co., Ltd. issued the Hangzhou-Changzhou price adjustment announcement, such as Hangzhou East Railway Station to Changsha South Railway Station, the lowest second-class ticket price is 267 yuan, about 34% lower than the current fare. According to the Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd. issued by Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd., the lowest ticket price for the second-class seat from Hangzhou East Railway Station to Ningbo Station is 47 yuan, which is about 34% lower than the current fare.
The above four announcements all pointed out that the implementation of fares between stations will be based on the upper limit of the published fare, with 5.5% off as the lower limit, and a multi-grade and flexible discount floating fare system will be implemented to provide passengers with more choices for travel. For the specific execution fare of each train, please check the 12306 website when purchasing tickets.
According to the surging news reporter, it has been a year since the last high-speed rail price increase. Previously, from May 30, 2023, a number of high-speed rail bullet train fares will be optimized and adjusted, including the optimization and adjustment of the published fares of EMU trains running on the Liunan, Jiaoji and Nanguang high-speed railways, as well as the optimization and adjustment of the published fares of EMU trains running on the Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway and Shanghai-Nanjing intercity trains with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour and above. The implementation of the fare between the stations will be the upper limit of the published fare, with a lower limit of 6.6% off, according to the calculation of the surging news reporter, the announced fare price increase at that time was about 10% to 20%.
The above four announcements also pointed out that the riding conditions will continue to be improved, strive to improve the quality of service, and sincerely welcome the majority of passengers to choose to travel by high-speed rail EMU trains. The mantissa of the various fares of the above line segments shall be kept at least RMB, and the part less than RMB shall be rounded off in principle. The preferential range of preferential tickets for children, students, disabled servicemen, disabled police officers, etc., and other matters not covered herein, shall still be implemented in accordance with the current relevant regulations.
What is the reason for the price increase of high-speed rail?
China Railway Group: Market Behavior
Regarding the above-mentioned price adjustment, the relevant person in charge of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Railway Group") responded to the surging news reporter that "it is a normal market behavior". As for whether the follow-up service quality will be further improved, the relevant person in charge said, "Stay tuned."
Some media quoted the relevant person in charge of the national railway as saying that the current optimization and adjustment of fares for some high-speed rail lines is a measure for the national railway group to deepen the structural reform of the transportation supply side. "The purpose is to promote the growth of passenger flow and comprehensively improve the quality of passenger service through the flexible implementation of the market-oriented mechanism of high-speed rail fares." ”
"Floating fares" have been implemented in Chinese railways for several years. According to the surging news reporter, at the end of 2020, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway took the lead in implementing floating fares for high-speed rail EMU trains with a speed of 300 to 350 kilometers per hour.
At the end of 2023, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway said on the investor interactive platform that after the company went public, it has carried out some market-oriented explorations in terms of fares, the core of which is to reflect the principle of high quality and high price. In the future, the company will continue to sum up experience, explore more refined fare mechanism in more depth, and further improve the service quality while increasing the revenue of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. As for whether the price will be raised year by year in the future, the management of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway pointed out at the investor interaction event in April 2022 that the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is located in the eastern region with abundant passenger flow, and it also has the basis for fare increases, and the ability of passengers to pay and the level of regional economic development can be supported. The adjustment of the fare mechanism is still in the exploratory stage, and there is no fixed frequency, and it is more to refer to the competing modes of transportation to make some adjustments.
According to CCTV News, the dynamic price adjustment of high-speed rail, for passengers who are more sensitive to price but have a large time redundancy, they can avoid peak hours, and the travel cost is lower. After the optimization and adjustment of some high-speed rail fares, there may be multiple prices for high-speed rail trains on the same day and on the same journey, and passengers can carefully compare and choose their favorite trains just like buying air tickets. Experts believe that flexible freight rates can, on the one hand, enhance the sensitivity of railways to the market and speed up the pace of integration of the railway corporation into the market; on the other hand, it can improve the income expectations and operating environment of the railway industry, and enhance the attractiveness of the railway industry to social capital, so as to live water and raise fish.
The railway price adjustment will further increase the profitability of China Railway Group. With the recovery of the domestic passenger transport market, the operating efficiency of China Railway Group has increased significantly last year. According to the recent disclosure of China Railway Group, in 2023, China Railway Group will achieve operating income of 1,245.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, and a net profit of 3.3 billion yuan, and in the first quarter of 2024, China Railway Group will achieve operating income of 283.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%.
According to the person in charge of the Finance Department of China Railway Group, railway passenger traffic will reach the best level in history in 2023, with the national railway completing the dispatch of 3.68 billion passengers, and the number of passengers sent on peak days exceeding 20 million, and the annual and peak day passenger dispatch volume will reach a record high. In the first quarter of 2024, a number of passenger transport indicators hit the best level in history, and the national railway sent 966 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 27.9%. At the end of 2023, the asset-liability ratio of China Railway Group was 65.54%, a decrease of 0.84 percentage points from the end of the previous year, and new achievements were made in the high-quality development of railways.
The person in charge also said that in the next step, China Railway Group will accelerate the construction of a modern railway operation and management system, adhere to the direction of marketization, rule of law and internationalization, deepen railway reform and innovation, promote the increase in passenger and freight transportation, comprehensively strengthen budget management, promote the integrated operation of transportation industry and non-transportation industry, continue to do a good job in saving expenditure and reducing consumption, and continuously improve the quality and efficiency of national railway enterprises.
In addition, the listed company Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway (601816. SH) achieved a new high in the first quarter of this year. In 2023, the revenue will be 40.683 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 110.40%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 11.546 billion yuan, compared with a net loss of 576 million yuan in the same period of the previous year, achieving a year-on-year turnaround of losses into profits, a year-on-year increase of 2103.63%. In the first quarter of 2024, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway achieved revenue of 10.106 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.06%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 2.963 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.11%.
It is worth noting that although many airlines have turned losses into profits or increased their profitability significantly in the first quarter of this year, none of them has exceeded the profitability of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. It is reported that high-speed rail competitors are mainly from other transportation industries, including highways, civil aviation, etc. According to the characteristics of different modes of transportation, railways, highways, civil aviation, etc. meet different types of transportation needs. In the short-distance passenger transport market within 100 km, road transport has the advantages of high train density and strong flexibility, and has a great competitive advantage; in the medium and long-distance passenger transport market of 100 km to 1000 km, high-speed rail has the advantages of high punctuality, large passenger capacity, economic comfort, and little influence by natural climate, and has a great competitive advantage; in the long-distance passenger transport market of 1000 km to 1500 km, high-speed rail and civil aviation have fierce competition by virtue of their respective advantages.
Source: The Paper
Editor: Xiaoyu