The railway 12306 system operates smoothly and stably, and the Spring Festival transportation ushered in the peak sales of return train tickets.
At present, the railway 12306 system has successfully passed the pre-Spring Festival ticket sales peak. It has started selling tickets for February 16 (the seventh day of the first lunar month) on February 2, ushering in the post-holiday return ticket sales peak. Yang Lipeng, technical director of the Railway 12306 Science and Technology Innovation Center, answered questions related to the purchase of Spring Festival travel train tickets that are of public concern.
Since Spring Festival travel train tickets went on sale
12306 runs smoothly and stably
Since the Spring Festival travel ticket went on sale on January 12, the Railway 12306 system has sold a total of 398 million train tickets, including 258 million during the Spring Festival travel period. The 12306 Internet ticketing system withstood the pressure of ultra-large-scale concurrent access, successfully passed the pre-holiday ticketing peak, and the system ran smoothly and stably. On average, 12306 registered users successfully logged in 35.842 million times a day, and the highest number of successful logins in a single day was 44.898 million; the average daily page views were 62.21 billion times, and the highest number in a single day was 87.56 billion times.
The new functions of railway 12306 are highlighted
Before the Spring Festival this year, Railway 12306 launched a series of new functions. First, we have strengthened technical precautions and taken measures such as directly rejecting the abnormal ticket grabbing behaviors of "ticket grabbing software" and putting them at the end of the queue. The second is to launch a sales reminder function. Passengers can set multiple alarm clock reminders in advance according to the ticket sales start time to submit ticket purchase orders in time. So far, a total of 46.25 million people have used the reminder function. The third is to implement pre-filling of ticket purchase requirements. Passengers can pre-fill their ticket purchase information before tickets go on sale, allowing them to submit orders with one click, which greatly speeds up ticket booking. At present, passengers have successfully purchased 6.256 million tickets for popular trains through the pre-filling function of ticket purchase requirements. The fourth is to upgrade the standby ticket purchasing function. Each passenger can submit 6 ticket purchase requests for 60 trains per order. When tickets are available, the system will cash them in the order in which the passengers submitted their orders without charging any additional fees. This function provides passengers with more choices and effectively improves the wait-list success rate. The fifth is to set up a special ticket purchase area for migrant workers and students during the Spring Festival travel period. Students and migrant workers can submit travel ticket purchase requirements more than 17 days (inclusive) before driving. At present, 440,000 tickets have been successfully redeemed in the student ticket purchase area, and 1.107 million tickets have been successfully redeemed in the migrant worker ticket purchase area. Sixth, expand the scope of ticket changes. Passengers can change tickets within the pre-sale period before driving and on the day after driving, which greatly facilitates passengers’ travel flexibility. A total of 2.259 million tickets have been changed under the new rules.
Why is it still so hard to buy train tickets?
What’s the reaction of “some trains go on sale as soon as they go on sale”?
This year’s Spring Festival Transport is the first regular Spring Festival Transport after the epidemic prevention and control has stabilized, and passengers have a strong willingness to travel. Judging from the situation in the first nine days of Spring Festival travel, railways, as a popular means of transportation, are the first choice for passengers to travel, with an average of 11.834 million passengers per day. During the Spring Festival travel period, the railway department did its best to arrange transportation capacity and put all passenger cars into operation. It can provide up to 10.7 million passenger seats per day (excluding reuse on the way), and the total amount of transportation capacity is the highest in history. Despite this, passenger tickets are still in short supply. During the peak period of Spring Festival travel, passengers travel intensively, and railway passenger flow has the characteristics of extremely concentrated, extremely uneven, and one-way flow. Moreover, it is impossible for any means of transportation to prepare capacity according to the highest passenger flow, otherwise it will cause a huge waste of normal transportation resources. According to the analysis of pre-holiday ticket sales and waiting lists, all railway transportation capacity has been put into use, but it is still unable to meet the large-scale ticket purchase demand of passengers traveling intensively in just a few days. The contradiction between supply and demand is extremely prominent. It is expected that many passengers will travel during the peak period. It is impossible to buy train tickets as desired, especially for popular trains in particularly popular directions such as Guangzhou to Chongqing and Shenzhen to Wuhan. Precisely due to the tight supply of tickets during the period, some institutional platforms took the opportunity to use special means such as purchasing on behalf of others, grabbing tickets, and hoarding tickets to increase prices and make profits. This approach further aggravated the contradiction between supply and demand. Objectively speaking, railway transport capacity and train ticket supply are limited and cannot fully meet demand during peak periods.
Standardize ticket purchasing order
Maintain fairness in ticket purchasing
The railway department has been committed to providing a limited number of train tickets to passengers fairly, fairly, conveniently and safely, and the ticket purchase order has become increasingly standardized. However, some platform organizations regard the contradiction between supply and demand of Spring Festival travel train tickets as a "business opportunity" to make money, and use special means such as "ticket grabbing software" to carry out "ticket grabbing for profit" business, seriously disrupting the order of ticket purchasing, and affecting the protection of passengers' personal information and the railway 12306 system. Safety brings risks, and some even seriously harm the vital interests of passengers.
To this end, the railway department has adopted a series of containment measures and tried its best to regulate the order of ticket purchasing and maintain fairness in ticket purchasing. An online verification mechanism for passenger identity information and national certification authorities has been established to effectively regulate the registration and ticket purchase services on the 12306 platform, making it impossible to register and purchase tickets with false identity information. Strengthen the real-time monitoring and identification of behaviors such as purchasing on behalf of others, grabbing tickets, and hoarding tickets, and take measures such as directly rejecting requests for abnormal behaviors or placing their demands at the end of the queue. Since the Spring Festival travel ticket went on sale, abnormal ticket purchasing behavior has been identified that handles 64% of the total ticket purchase requests, and abnormal waitlist ticket purchase behavior accounts for 39% of the total waitlist ticket purchase requests. The 12306 ticketing system was upgraded in advance to expand the bandwidth, further improve the ability to cope with high ticket sales and technical prevention capabilities, and ensure the smooth operation of the website.
In order to make more profits, some "ticket-grabbing software" also create the concept of "accelerated packages" with various styles and fees such as fast, light speed, VIP, etc., and engage in false propaganda to make passengers mistakenly believe that purchasing "accelerated package" services can increase ticket grabbing rates. Success rate. According to 12306 backend data analysis, the successful ticket purchase time is the same regardless of whether or not the "acceleration package" is purchased.
"The online 'ticket grabbing software' can grab tickets together, then refund the tickets without paying or after paying, and then let the returned tickets meet the waiting list submitted by you." In fact, the probability of using this method to grab tickets is extremely low . Because the waiting list submitted by the "ticket grabbing software" needs to eventually enter the 12306 waiting queue, and the waiting list of the 12306 system is cashed in the order of the time when the order is generated, the ticket grabbing software cannot adjust the waiting list at the back to the front. At the same time, the 12306 system can Through multiple channels, orders with abnormal waiting list demand are identified and dealt with, and tickets will not be given priority to meet abnormal waiting list demand.
The essence of “tickets available” on the “ticket grabbing software” page
Some "ticket grabbing software" set a large number of words 12306 on their relevant pages and function introductions, making passengers mistakenly think that they have cooperated with the railway 12306 platform and that the ticket amount is guaranteed. The actual situation is that the 12306 platform has never cooperated with any third-party platform organization, nor has it allocated ticket amounts to any third-party platform for sale, nor has it established data links with any third-party platform.
The remaining ticket data displayed on the "ticket grabbing software" platform page is obtained by crawling the information displayed on the page from the 12306 platform, and then modifying and processing it. When the train tickets for a certain train are sold out, the 12306 platform will show that there are no tickets for the train, but when it is displayed on the "ticket grabbing software" platform, it will be changed to "ticketed", which essentially allows passengers to "buy the long-distance train and take the short-distance train" and " Buy the short and multiply the long”. “Ticket-grabbing software” induces passengers to set up multiple destination-station combinations, adopt the “buy long-distance and take short-distance” method of spending more money to purchase tickets for a few stops ahead of the actual arrival station, and “buy short-distance tickets first to get on the train and not get off in violation of regulations” Buy tickets using the "buy short, ride long" method. Under "Have a ticket", additional small print prompts are set, such as "Buy for a few more stops" or "You don't have to get off the bus for the whole journey, get on the bus to pay for the ticket", etc. This kind of "Have a ticket" does not really have a ticket from the departure station to the arrival station. "Buy a short trip and take a short trip" will make passengers pay more. "Buy a short trip and take a long trip" and get on the train to pay for tickets may trigger an overcrowding alarm and affect the safety of train operation. The railway department will ask those who "buy a short trip and take a long trip" to get off the train in accordance with regulations. Passenger travel will be greatly affected.
In addition, the "ticket-grabbing software" also recommends unreasonable transfer plans, allowing its platform to show that tickets are available. Some transfer times are particularly short, which can easily cause "missed rides" when passengers travel. However, the "ticket-grabbing software" does not consider For these, only the fees earned by successfully purchasing tickets will be considered.
Train ticket allocation takes into account both long and short distances
The basic principle of railway ticket allocation is to coordinate and consider the convenience of passengers along the line to purchase tickets and make full use of railway transportation resources, taking into account both long and short distances. The allocation is mainly based on the historical passenger flow and ticket pre-sale situation of the originating station and stations along the way. Long-distance passengers taking the train from the originating station to the terminal station are given priority. When there are still long-distance tickets left, the ticketing system will adjust part of the ticket amount. to the stations in need along the way. At present, in the national railway operation map, the proportion of short-distance passenger trains under the management of the railway bureau reaches 65%, giving short-distance passengers a large choice. Regarding the phenomenon found online that some trains have "a large number of empty seats", the main reason is that these trains are either return trains with one-way passenger flow, or some seats are reserved to take care of passengers at intermediate stations, or they may be partially operated. Trains with long lines may not have full passenger flow in some sections.
Suggestions on purchasing tickets during the peak sales period of Spring Festival travel rush
The Railway 12306 website is the only official train ticket online ticketing platform of China Railway. With the care and care of the vast number of passengers and friends, it has grown into the world's largest real-time ticketing system. The railway department has also been constantly listening to suggestions from all parties and working hard to upgrade technology, improve functions, and improve the experience. We sincerely thank all passengers and friends for their concern and support. During the peak period of train ticket sales during the Spring Festival, it is recommended that all passengers choose the official railway 12306 channel (www.12306.cn, railway 12306 mobile APP) to purchase tickets, and do not purchase tickets on any other platforms to prevent affecting personal itineraries and increasing travel costs. Disclosure of personal information.
It is recommended to make full use of the new railway 12306 functions such as subscription of sales reminder, pre-filling of ticket purchase requirements, waitlist ticket purchase, and special ticket purchase area services for migrant workers and students to improve the success rate of ticket purchase. When you cannot buy the direct ticket you want, you can try to buy a connecting ticket on the 12306 platform and travel in sections. The railway department has launched transfer services at 120 major stations, allowing passengers to transfer without leaving the station.
Due to the limited railway transport capacity and total ticket amount, it cannot meet the concentrated travel needs of passengers during peak hours. It is recommended that passengers choose to travel during peak periods or choose other modes of transportation. (China Railway WeChat official account)