The Spring Festival travel rush is coming soon, and the debate over "standing train tickets" has resurfaced. "Most passengers without seats are migrant workers who can't book tickets online or pull strings to get them, and they can't snag an assigned seat. According to market value rules, they don’t receive services that match the price of their tickets, so charging full price for standing tickets is unreasonable." Recently, a netizen put forward this view, which immediately sparked heated discussion. Some commented, "One person sits, another stands, yet the fare is the same—how is that fair?" Others suggested selling seated tickets first and not offering standing tickets if seated ones remain unsold. Some also argued that short-distance trips don’t need half-price discounts and proposed increasing the number of standing-only carriages during the travel rush.
The topic of "half-price standing tickets" is actually an old one. Every year during the Spring Festival travel rush, there’s debate over whether standing tickets should be discounted. As early as 2008, the Ministry of Railways responded to public suggestions about implementing a "standing fare" by saying that doing so would attract more people to trains, leading to severe overcrowding and compromising safety. According to the current Railway Passenger Transport Fare Rules, ticket prices are calculated based on the actual route taken, meaning fares are primarily determined by distance—longer distances cost more. This seems unrelated to whether one sits or stands, so naturally, "half-price standing tickets" can’t be realized.
On December 15, Dr. Xu Xiang, a sociology expert from Nanjing Normal University, stated that introducing standing tickets initially had positive significance, but after all these years, it’s necessary for railways to revise the rules. While the feasibility of half-price standing tickets is limited, offering discounts is entirely achievable—for example, setting different discount standards based on routes, transportation costs, and passenger volume.
Source: Modern Express
Your turn to speak
In favor: Same price, different treatment is unfair
Little Bei World: Support discounts. Why pay the same price for unequal service?
Oo Bubble Fish oO: How can standing tickets cost the same as seated ones? One involves sitting, the other standing. By that logic, sleeper and hard-seat tickets should also cost the same, and we shouldn’t have different prices for upper, middle, and lower berths.
Xiao Yuer - Thanks to Others: I think there should be discounts. Same price, different treatment feels a bit unfair.
Cloud Wanderer at the Summit: Since we already have tiered pricing and seat categories like soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, and hard seat, technically separating standing tickets isn’t an issue at all.
Against: What if there are empty seats en route? Will you pay extra to sit?
Shaanxi Mobile User: If there’s a seat available mid-journey, will you, as a standing-ticket holder, take it? And if you do, will you pay extra?
Zhou Yaokes Don’t Change Your Name: Emotionally, I support half-price, but realistically, I don’t. True, half-price reduces costs and burdens for those returning home, but anyone who’s ridden a train has seen standing-ticket holders sitting during bathroom breaks or moving to empty seats after others disembark.
Lawyer Wang Yonghao: If standing tickets are half-price, the railway authority could just cancel them altogether—stop selling them, right? Who would suffer more then?
Dad of Little Black Rabbit: Selling standing tickets exploits seated ones and degrades service quality.
Netizen: While trains are a form of public transport, fares haven’t increased in years. Implementing half-price standing tickets would increase state subsidies even more. Also, during the travel rush, long-distance buses charge the same for seated and standing tickets—let’s stay rational and objective.
Shining Yiyi: Costs and ticket issuance are hard to estimate. Some ideas sound good in theory, but in practice, they face countless obstacles. Do you know how much extra work a simple idea like this adds for programmers?
Neutral: Just cancel standing tickets
A Knife 1960: The number of standing tickets should be limited, or they should be canceled altogether. Authorities should consider adding more train services to meet passenger demand.
Guo Wenbin: Discounts aren’t a bad suggestion, but they might not be "heard" by railway authorities. After all, any price adjustment would significantly cut into their profits. Moreover, during the travel rush, the "hard-to-get-a-ticket" situation won’t be completely resolved—so why implement "half-price standing tickets" or "discounted standing tickets"?
Huang Jingchun: If we all try to find jobs closer to home, we wouldn’t keep fixating on "half-price" standing tickets or worrying over a single train ticket.