With an increase of nearly 20%, the fares of four high-speed railways including Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway and Shanghai-Kunming Passenger Railway have increased.
The fare increase window for some popular high-speed rail lines will open in June.
Starting from June 15, 2024, Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Co., Ltd. will increase the published fares of EMU trains with speeds of 300 kilometers per hour and above running on the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway. %about. Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway announced the above information on May 2.
The fare list released by Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway shows that the fare for second-class seats from Wuhan to Guangzhou South will be 553 yuan from June 15, 2024, while the previously announced fare was 463.5 yuan, an increase of 89.50 yuan, or 19.31%; the fare The table also shows that fares for other sections of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway have increased by the same amount.
Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway said that after the fare adjustment, it will establish a flexible pricing mechanism based on market conditions, distinguish factors such as seasons, dates, time periods, seats, etc., and implement a differentiated discount and floating strategy with increases and decreases. The fares implemented between each station will be based on the published fare as the upper limit and 5.5% off as the lower limit to implement a multi-level, flexible discount floating fare system. Regarding fare discounts, the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway also gave an example. For example, the lowest fare for a second-class seat from Wuhan Station to Guangzhou South Station is 304 yuan, which is about 34% lower than the current fare.
A reporter from "China Business News" asked the 12306 website about this. The customer service of the 12306 website said that starting from June 15, 2024, the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway will increase prices. Regarding the fare discount policy, customer service said that the discount floating strategy will be determined by the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway based on factors such as season and passenger flow intensity. Passengers can learn the specific discount standards through the page display when purchasing tickets on the 12306 website. The Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway will not advance in advance. Announce discount standards, discount time and other information.
The customer service of the 12306 website emphasized that if the discount is not displayed on the ticket purchase page of the 12306 website, the full fare of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway will be 553 yuan starting from June 15.
In addition to the price increase of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Co., Ltd., the Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Zhejiang Co., Ltd., the Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Jiangxi Co., Ltd., the Shanghai-Kunming Railway Passenger Dedicated Line Hunan Co., Ltd., and the Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway The Passenger Dedicated Line Co., Ltd. both issued announcements on May 2 that they will increase the fares of the high-speed rail lines they operate from June 15.
The Shanghai-Hangzhou Passenger Express has increased the current second-class fare from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hangzhou East from 73 yuan to 87 yuan, an increase of 19.18%; the Shanghai-Kunming Passenger Express has increased the fares of its routes in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan, such as Hangzhou The current fare for second-class seats from Hangzhou south to Nanchang is raised from 405 yuan to 485 yuan, an increase of 19.75%. The current second-class fare from Hangzhou south to Nanchang is increased from 257 yuan to 308 yuan, an increase of 19.84%. The current ticket price for second-class seats in Ningbo has been raised from 71 yuan to 85 yuan, an increase of 19.72%.
The Shanghai-Hangzhou Passenger Express, the Shanghai-Kunming Passenger Express, and the Hangzhou-Ningbo Passenger Express all made consistent statements with the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway in their announcements, saying that they will implement a fare discount and floating strategy based on market conditions and different factors such as seasons, dates, time periods, seats, etc. , the implemented fare will be based on the published price as the upper limit and 5.5% off as the lower limit.
After the implementation of the new fare, the second-class high-speed railway tickets of Wuhan-Guangzhou, Shanghai-Hangzhou, and Hangzhou-Ningbo are close to 0.55 yuan/km. Previously, high-speed railways such as the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, which were put into operation, adopted fare-setting policies that were independently determined by transportation companies and submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission for filing. The upper limit of second-class fares was approximately 0.48 yuan/km. In December 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on Reforming and Improving Passenger Fare Policies for High-Speed Railway EMUs", officially delegating the high-speed rail pricing power to the China Railway Group, and the previous relevant price limit regulations were abolished at the same time.
This price increase is the largest increase in high-speed rail fares by the railway department in recent years. The most recent price increase was in June 2021. The maximum ticket price for a second-class seat on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail increased from 598 yuan to 662 yuan. An increase of 10.70%.
Regarding the price increase for the four high-speed rail lines at the same time, a person from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. told reporters that the current optimization and adjustment of fares for some high-speed rail lines is a measure by the State Railway Group to deepen the structural reform of the transportation supply side. In accordance with innovative supply and drive Based on the idea of demand, carry out genealogical design of passenger transport products and improve and optimize the supply system of passenger transport products.
People from China Railway Group said that through innovative passenger transport products and fully stimulating potential passenger consumption is the current idea of China Railway Group to further improve the quality of high-speed rail operations. "The purpose is to promote the growth of passenger flow and comprehensively improve the quality of passenger transport services through the flexible implementation of the high-speed rail fare marketization mechanism."
In recent times, railway passenger volume has increased steadily and repeatedly broken historical records. In 2023, the China Railway Group completed 3.68 billion passengers, a year-on-year increase of 128.57%. The number of passengers sent on peak days exceeded 20 million. Passengers throughout the year and on peak days The sending volume has reached a record high.
Railway passenger traffic will continue to grow rapidly in 2024. In the first quarter, the number of railway passengers across the country exceeded 1 billion for the first time, reaching 1.014 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.35%. The average daily number of passengers was 11.147 million, a year-on-year increase of 28.5%, of which 321 million passengers were sent in March, a year-on-year increase of 14.64%.
The rapid growth of passenger traffic has brought benefits to China Railway Group in terms of revenue and profits.
In 2023, China Railway Group achieved total transportation revenue of 964.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39%, exceeding the established target of 817.5 billion yuan by 146.6 billion yuan. The National Railway Group's "2023 Annual Report" also showed that the total revenue of the National Railway Group in 2023 reached 1.25 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.62%. The net profit turned from negative to positive, and exceeded the 3 billion yuan mark for the first time, reaching 3.304 billion yuan. 2023 has become the best year in the history of China Railway Group's operating performance, with both total revenue and net profit breaking historical records.
Regarding the price increase trend of popular high-speed rail lines, Li Hongchang, deputy director of the China Transportation Economics Research Center at Beijing Jiaotong University, told reporters that flexible fares should be based on market competition and passengers having multiple choices. Only by introducing a competition mechanism can we ensure that the price adjustment process is not simply a process of monopoly influence and profit grabbing. For monopolies, price increases must be subject to government regulation. As a state-owned enterprise, the China Railway Group should also be responsible for social welfare.
Zhao Jian, a professor at the School of Economics and Management at Beijing Jiaotong University, said that because high-speed rail investment and operating costs are very high, if the price is based on cost, high-speed rail fares will increase significantly, which will affect high-speed rail passenger flow. High-speed rail should establish a flexible and market-competitive fare system. The price of long-distance high-speed rail lines should be based on air ticket prices, and the price of short-distance high-speed rail lines should be based on road prices. The price adjustment mechanism should also be more flexible, such as increasing fares on Mondays and Fridays when travel demand is greater, and reducing fares at other times; increasing fares during morning and evening peak hours, and reducing fares during off-peak hours.
