As Chinese scramble for train tickets for Lunar New Year, high-speed sleepers get cold shoulder
Limited enthusiasm on debut of new rail service, with many passengers appearing to favour slower, cheaper options and even budget flights
People snapped up rail tickets yesterday as bookings opened for the Lunar New Year's Eve services, but there was limited enthusiasm for the debut of the new high-speed sleeper services.
Unlike other trains, which offer bookings 60 days in advance, the new long-haul high-speed sleepers can be booked 30 days in advance at most - meaning passengers must wait until mid-January to book for the holiday's peak travel period
However, on Saturday, tickets went on sale for the period from the service's launch on January 1 up to January 18.
By yesterday, only half of the tickets for the January 1 high-speed sleeper service from Beijing West to Shenzhen North and Guangzhou South had been sold, according to the railway authorities' official website.
That contrasted poorly with two other slower trains on the same day that feature sleeper cars. All seats and sleepers were snapped up and only standing tickets remained available for Z13 and Z201 trains from Beijing to Guangzhou. These trains take 21 hours and 44 minutes to complete the journey - almost double the 11 hours the high-speed soft sleeper takes, itself about 1.5 hours slower than other high-speed trains.
High-speed soft sleeper tickets were on sale for 1,120 yuan (HK$1,410) to Guangzhou and 1,190 yuan to Shenzhen.