Reporter Lu Bingyang reports from Beijing
From June 15, the fares of 4 high-speed railways, including the Wuguang section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway and the Shanghai-Hangzhou passenger dedicated, will be optimized and adjusted, and there is no adjustment plan for the number of general-speed trains on the 4 parallel high-speed rail lines, and the number of general-speed trains will not be reduced. Zhu Wenzhong, deputy director of the passenger transport department of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Railway Group"), made the above response on June 1 on the implementation of a market-based fare mechanism for some high-speed rail trains.
Zhu Wenzhong said that considering the inclusiveness, balance and accessibility of railway transportation services, the railway department has always maintained the scale of ordinary speed passenger trains. After the optimization and adjustment of the fares of the four high-speed railways, including the Wuguang section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway and the Shanghai-Hangzhou passenger dedicated section, there are 112 pairs of general-speed trains in the Wuhan-Guangzhou section of the Beijing-Guangzhou railway, 77 pairs of general-speed trains in the Shanghai-Hangzhou section of the Shanghai-Kunming railway, 75 pairs of the Hangzhou-Changzhou section, and 14 pairs of Hangzhou-Ningbo railways.
As for why the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway Wuguang section, Shanghai-Hangzhou passenger dedicated and other four high-speed railways were selected to implement the market-oriented fare mechanism, Nie Lei, a professor at the School of Transportation of Beijing Jiaotong University, said in an interview that considering that these four high-speed railways cover the more economically developed areas in South China and the east and central regions, the comprehensive transportation system is relatively perfect, and the competition of various transportation modes is sufficient; In addition, since its opening more than 10 years ago, it has been implementing a fixed and single fare mechanism, and the price comparison relationship with other modes of transportation after the optimization and adjustment of fares is more reasonable, which is conducive to giving full play to the role of a comprehensive transportation system.
At the same time, the fare level of these four high-speed railways and similar EMU trains running on other surrounding high-speed rail lines is also more balanced, which is conducive to the formation of a reasonable price comparison relationship within railway enterprises.
On the current imbalance of high-speed rail passenger flow, Zhu Wenzhong said that big data analysis shows that the current imbalance of high-speed rail passenger flow is mainly manifested in: first, the passenger flow of different calendars is very different, and the number of passengers sent on holidays and weekends is generally 8 million ~ 18 million, while the working days from Monday to Friday are 6 million ~ 12 million, with a peak and valley difference of nearly one-third. The second is that the passenger flow at different stops is very different, and the number of stops and the length of travel time on the way of the train have a significant impact on the passenger load factor. Third, there is a large difference in passenger flow at different times. Because there is no difference in fares, the passenger load rate of high-speed rail trains running before 7 a.m. and after 21 p.m. is generally less than 60%, which is significantly lower than the average of 73% of all high-speed rail trains.
Zhu Wenzhong gave an example of this, because the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway implements the same fare, G883 stops between Wuhan Station and Guangzhou South Railway Station, stopping 2 stops on the way, the travel time is 3 hours and 54 minutes, and the average passenger load rate reaches 94.2%; G1135 made 7 stopovers, with a travel time of 4 hours and 39 minutes, and an average load factor of only 54.6%.
In 2020, after the implementation of the market-based fare mechanism on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the G19 trips with a travel time of 4 hours and 28 minutes decreased from the previous average load factor of 94.3% to 90.3%, and the G149 trips with a travel time of 6 hours and 2 minutes increased from the previous average load factor of 62.4% to 73%. Zhu Wenzhong said that the market-oriented fare mechanism has brought the price leverage into play, guided passengers to travel off-peak, promoted the equalization of passenger flow, and improved the comprehensive transportation efficiency.
On how to reflect the "rise and fall" of high-speed rail fares, Zhu Wenzhong said that taking into account various factors such as the arrival time of the train, the number of stops, the short travel time and the distribution of passenger flow, the specific implementation fare of each train ticket is reasonably determined with the published fare as the upper limit. That is, the implementation of non-discounted fares for some train tickets with fast travel speed and long-term short supply, and the implementation of discounted fares for some train tickets with more stops and convenient for passengers along the line. Taking the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway as an example, the trains with higher seating rates are all implemented without discounted fares, and the trains with lower seating rates are implemented with discounted fares.
On the issue of the competitive relationship between high-speed rail and other modes of transportation, Nie Lei said that although high-speed rail has a competitive relationship with other modes of transportation, it does not have monopoly attributes. For example, he said, high-speed rail and highways have formed a competitive partnership for short and medium-distance distances within 500 kilometers; In the medium and long-distance distance of 500~1500 kilometers, high-speed rail and civil aviation have formed a competitive cooperative relationship. At the same time, as far as the railway enterprises are concerned, ordinary speed passenger trains have also been arranged on parallel lines with high-speed railways, and competitive cooperation has also been formed.
Since 2020, a number of existing lines such as the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the Xiamen-Shenzhen high-speed railway, the Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railway, the Nanguang high-speed railway, and the Beijing-Wuhan section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway have implemented a market-oriented fare mechanism. According to China Railway Group, many high-speed rail markets are operating well and passenger flows are more balanced. On the basis of full investigation and demonstration, railway transport enterprises have implemented a market-oriented fare mechanism for four high-speed rail trains, including the Wuguang section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway and the Shanghai-Hangzhou passenger dedication.
On May 2, Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd., Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd., Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Line Zhejiang Co., Ltd., Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Line Jiangxi Co., Ltd., Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Line Hunan Co., Ltd., and Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway Passenger Line Co., Ltd. issued an announcement that from June 15, the fare of the high-speed rail line it operates will be increased (see China Business Network on May 3 report "Exclusive|Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, Shanghai-Kunming Passenger Line and other 4 high-speed rail fares have risen up nearly 20%").
On June 1, the 12306 website began to sell tickets for the above four high-speed rail lines. The ticket purchase page shows that on June 15, the multi-train fares of 4 high-speed rail lines showed discounted services.
On June 15th, Wuhan to Guangzhou South opened a total of 84 G-shaped trains, the implementation of the full fare is only G875 \ G877 and other 7 benchmark cars, the second-class ticket price is 553 yuan, the rest of the trains are discounted with different strengths, such as the lowest discount G1117 times, the second-class seat on the day of 5.5 discounts, only 304 yuan. On the same day, the difference between the lowest and highest fares of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway was 249 yuan, and the discount of the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed rail accounted for about 83% of the total number of trains (for details, see the report of China Business Network on June 1 "Railway June 15 Adjustment Map On the same day, the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed rail has a discount on the fares of more than 8 trains").
Taking the G7376 and G7536 EMU trains running between Hangzhou East and Shanghai Hongqiao on the Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway as an example, before the adjustment, the departure time of G7376 was 15:40 and the arrival time was 16:33, while the departure time of G7536 was 22:23 and the arrival time was 23:08, and the second-class ticket price was 73 yuan.
It can be seen that the G7376 arrival time is good, and the G7536 arrival time is not good, but the ticket price is the same; After the adjustment, the second-class ticket price of the former is 87 yuan, 19.1% higher than before the adjustment, and the second-class ticket price of the latter is 48 yuan, 34.2% lower than before the adjustment, and the ticket price with a bad delivery time is 39 yuan cheaper than the ticket price with a good delivery time.
(Editor: Meng Qingwei Review: Hao Cheng Proofreader: Yan Yuxia)
![Notice on the opening of No. 23 and the optimization of No. 22 bus routes[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)