Train sleeper women's group service has become popular! The system claims that thousands of people have successfully assembled trains, private rooms, female guests, groups, passengers, services, carriages, and female passengers

Recently, a news about "Ctrip launching a train sleeper women's group service" has attracted attention. The service charges 10 yuan per person, and it is claimed that when the group successfully issues a ticket, all room mates are guaranteed to be women. If the group fails, the fee will be refunded.

On July 26th, 12306 customer service staff told Jimu News reporters that there are currently no dedicated female carriages on the train. If passengers have a need, they can seek help from the train attendant to coordinate the replacement of carriage positions.

It is understood that in the history of Chinese railway transportation, there was a specialized "women's private room", but in the end, due to passenger flow issues, the "women's private room" quickly died.

Experts have pointed out that gender based allocation of carriages is not practical, as it not only increases the cost of ticket system setup, but also adds trouble to subsequent management.

The system claims to have successfully assembled a "female carriage" for thousands of passengers

On the evening of July 25th, Jimu News reporters attempted to book the K1079 train from Wuchang to Guangzhou on August 8th through the Ctrip app. After selecting the "hard sleeper" option, they entered the booking page. On the booking page, they could clearly see the service items with the words "whole network group cooperation · women's room", with a fee of 10 yuan/person. The service states: "A dedicated person will run errands offline. When the group successfully issues tickets, it is guaranteed that all room mates are female. If the group fails, the fee will be refunded.".

After clicking the "Join Group" button, you will immediately enter the pending payment page. The page prompts that after successful payment, the female room will be automatically grouped together.

The Jimu News reporter noticed that on the payment page, the system displayed "1718 users have been successfully matched". In the payment details, in addition to the 272.5 yuan required for purchasing a hard sleeper seat, an additional 10 yuan fee is required for selecting a female room.

On the morning of July 26th, Jimu News reporters once again attempted to book hard sleeper tickets for the K1079 train through the Ctrip app. The system displayed, "We have successfully helped 1724 users to book tickets."

In the "Risk Reminder" section of the service, it is clearly stated that after the successful ticket issuance for the group, if a group member cancels, changes their ticket or temporarily changes seats before traveling, it may not be possible to ensure that all passengers in the same room are still of the same gender.

Passengers who have purchased tickets will experience it in person

In fact, as early as April this year, the topic of "women's carriages" had sparked widespread discussion and once made it to the hot search.

At that time, a female passenger posted a roast that she was assigned to the "three men and one woman" carriage when she took the soft sleeper overnight carriage. Later, she changed places with another elder brother several carriages away, feeling lucky. She also suggested that China Railway could modify its algorithm to avoid overnight sleepers in confined spaces and allocate three men and one woman or three women and one man to non peers.

The situation mentioned by the female passenger above has resonated with many netizens who have had similar experiences. Some netizens commented that it would be great if same-sex carriage services could be launched, which could avoid many awkwardness and possible troubles. However, some netizens have also expressed that the user traffic of railway ticketing software is already very large, and they are concerned that adding algorithms may lead to crashes. At the same time, achieving same-sex carriages requires many additional conditions, which may be difficult to achieve.

After a gap of three months, the emergence of the "train sleeper women's group function" has once again sparked heated discussions among netizens. A netizen left a message saying that this service is really needed. It's nothing more than spending 10 yuan more. I think sisters in need can choose.

Some netizens also said that they have purchased this service, and they said, "I happen to be going on a trip now. After seeing this feature go online, I was also quite surprised. I have already issued a ticket and will try it out first.".

But some netizens are not optimistic about this, believing that setting up so-called women's carriages cannot fundamentally solve the problem.

As a result, a media initiated an online vote on "Is it necessary to set up female sleeper groups on trains?" As of around 1:30 on July 26th, 65% of participants believed it was "very necessary," 15% believed it was "not very necessary," and the remaining 20% believed it was "worth giving it a try.".

The development team claims to provide more choices for users with needs

Is "women's group service" reliable? If female passengers are assigned to sleeper carriages with "3 men and 1 woman", can the carriages be replaced?

On the morning of July 26th, 12306 customer service staff told Jimu News reporters that there are currently no dedicated female carriages on the train. If passengers have a need, they can seek help from the train attendant to coordinate the replacement of carriage positions. They are not clear about the specific situation of "women's group service".

According to the Qilu Evening News, a product manager of the Ctrip train ticket sleeper group product project team said that before the project development, a female passenger in the social network "roast", which also accelerated the project. The cause was that a female passenger happened to encounter three male passengers in the sleeper compartment, feeling slightly inconvenienced. "We felt that the product needed to be launched as soon as possible to provide more choices for users with customization needs. In the project team, there were approximately half male and half female passengers, and everyone's enthusiasm for promoting the product launch was very high."

It is understood that Ctrip sleeper women's group buying products are currently available for train services starting with K, T, and Z. The group buying option will automatically pop up after selecting a single person, and female/male car group buying will be provided based on the user's gender. In order to launch this service, Ctrip Train Tickets not only developed front-end and back-end products, but also made more use of the advantages of dedicated service provided by partners. Due to the cost of manual services, a small service fee is charged to users.

"At present, due to the enthusiastic response of the product, we have also decided to adjust the product to a limited time free service within this week. Ctrip will subsidize users to experience this service for free, and we welcome more feedback from everyone." said a product director of Ctrip Train Tickets.

The "women's private room" was briefly tested

According to a report by The Paper, there was a specialized "women's private room" in the history of Chinese railway transportation. In 2006, the former Ministry of Railways requested the establishment of "soft sleeper for female guests" on the Z5/6 and Z21/22 trains on the Beijing Shanghai Line. At that time, the "soft sleeper for female guests" was specifically designed for female passengers traveling alone on trains. The Z6 and Z22 trains from Shanghai to Beijing reserve two soft sleeper private rooms in one carriage each day. Due to the fact that the female guest soft sleeper private room is exclusively for women, as long as one ticket is sold for each private room, the female exclusive private room can be arranged.

If the entire booth in the private room is not sold the day before driving, the tickets for the entire private room will be transferred to the public window for sale. In addition, when the "female guest" special private room ticket is processed for refund, the system will automatically return the ticket for later purchase by the "female guest". On February 7, 2006, the Beijing Shanghai Z6 direct train departed from Shanghai, and the two reserved private rooms in the No. 3 soft sleeper carriage became the first female exclusive private rooms opened on this route. However, in China's first women's private room, only two passengers were seated.

Based on multiple sources, the issue of passenger flow is the main reason for the rapid demise of "female guest rooms".

According to Beijing media reports, since the opening of special windows, there have been very few "female private room" tickets sold at Beijing Station, and ultimately most of the tickets were sold at regular windows, resulting in poor ticket sales. Less than ten days after its birth, Beijing Station has stopped selling soft sleeper tickets for female guests. A staff member said, "We once set up a ticket window for 'women's private rooms' in the direct sales area, and now this window has resumed selling regular train tickets."

In 2015, the railway department took the lead in testing the exclusive private rooms for female guests on some high-speed rail sleeper trains. According to public reports, the system for ticket sellers has a "female guest" option that can be checked, but there is no corresponding option for "female guest exclusive private rooms" when purchasing tickets online. The ticket for the exclusive private room for female guests can only be purchased at the ticket hall window of the station.

Some ordinary passenger trains have also launched so-called "female guest rooms" services. For example, the information on train Z206 states that for female passengers traveling alone, if they find it inconvenient to share a private room with male passengers during the journey, they can apply to the cabin crew and adjust it to a "female guest room" only for female passengers according to the actual situation, enjoying more personalized train services. This is not a design on the ticketing system, but relies on on-site coordination.

Experts believe that gender based allocation of carriages will add trouble to management

Is it necessary to allocate sleeper seats based on gender?

Shang Zhongsheng, Deputy Director and Distinguished Professor of the Urban Safety and Social Management Research Center at Wuhan University, believes in an interview with Jimu News that allocating train tickets based on gender is not only unnecessary but also impractical.

Shang Chongsheng stated that even if the soft sleeper can be closed, the interior of the carriage is essentially a public space, and passengers in the same carriage are likely strangers. There is no need to be awkward when interacting in public spaces. Moreover, whether it is "3 men and 1 woman" or "3 women and 1 man", strangers generally do not have the intention to commit a joint crime. On the contrary, in public places, several strangers can also play a role in balancing each other. If passengers feel really embarrassed, they can negotiate with other passengers to change seats.

In addition, Shang Shisheng believes that allocating carriages based on gender is not practical, as it not only increases the cost of ticket system setup, but also adds trouble to subsequent management. "For example, if someone gets off the train midway and there are still three girls left in the carriage, how can the remaining seat be sold reasonably? Also, during the Spring Festival travel and long holidays, train tickets are already tight. If a carriage's ticket has already been sold to three men or three women, how will the remaining seat be allocated?" Shang Shisheng said, "For example, when couples travel together, it was originally more convenient to be in the same carriage. After implementing gender separation, they may need to apply separately or coordinate with other passengers. Considering various situations, it is even more difficult to allocate tickets."