The number of Spring Festival travelers has been increasing year by year, following2012the year when travel volume first exceeded30billion trips, the National Development and Reform Commission recently predicted2013the year’s travel rush will reach34billion trips.
High-speed rail passenger occupancy rates rise during Spring Festival travel
Last year, the Harbin-Dalian High-Speed Railway, Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway, and Beijing-Xi’an High-Speed Railway were opened. Among them, the launch of the Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway enabled morning departures and evening arrivals between the country’s north and south. Guangzhou Railway Group told the media that the opening of the Beijing-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway will alleviate the tight transport capacity on the Beijing-Guangzhou railway corridor, especially the pressure during the Spring Festival travel rush, and will also shorten the time-space distance between cities along the route.
Speed has increased, but so have high ticket prices.
Highway diversion still exists
The Ministry of Transport recently issued a notice stating that during the 2013 Spring Festival period, the time for waiving tolls on small passenger vehicles on national toll roads will be uniformly set from midnight on February 9 to 24:00 on February 15. Vehicles will be allowed to pass without stopping at toll booths. The range of vehicles eligible for free passage includes passenger vehicles with seven seats or fewer (including seven) as well as motorcycles.
This is the second time the policy of waiving tolls on major holidays for highways has been implemented. Even though traffic jams occurred on highways during last year’s National Day holiday, this did not stop people from wanting to drive home.
A staff member of China Auto Rental told reporters that during the Spring Festival period, the minimum daily rental price at their company is 280 yuan, in addition to insurance and handling fees. However, if you rent outside the Spring Festival period, the price is only 170 yuan per day, meaning the Spring Festival rental price is 1.6 times the regular rate. According to reports, the company previously had cars available for as low as 100 yuan per day. “We implement a dynamic pricing system,” the staff member said. This means the more people rent, the higher the prices go.
“In terms of the overall absolute volume of domestic transportation, road transport exceeds railway transport, which in turn exceeds air transport. Implementing the free policy during the Spring Festival period will help ease some of the Spring Festival travel pressure.”