Passenger rail transport in China
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This article is about passenger transportation in Mainland China. If you wish to know about passenger transportation in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, please see related articles.
Rail is one of the principal means of transport in Mainland China, with over 1.2 billion railway trips taken each year. The Spring Festival Travel Season is the peak railway travel season of the year. In 2006, more than 0.144 billion people traveled by rail during this 40 day festival period.
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[edit] Passenger Train Route Identifiers
Every train route has an identification number of two to four characters. The first character can be alphabetic or numeric, while the second to fourth characters are all numeric. If a train route changes from up service to down service while traveling in a certain direction it may use two different route numbers for that route (see below for the definition of up versus down).
[edit] First Character
The first character of the route identifier usually indicate the class of the passenger train, often determined by the speed and the relative number of stops the train makes along the way. There are five alphabetic prefixes.
[edit] X (New Express)
This series will be available after the sixth rise in speed of the railway in 2006. All will have soft beds or seats. The top speed will be 200km/h. These trains will be powered using electric multiple units (EMUs).
[edit] Z (Direct Express)
Though its name in Chinese (直达 Zhida, hence the Z Prefix) technically implies a "non-stop" train, some of these trains have several stops between the two stations. The majority have only soft sleepers, while very few have hard sleepers. As of Auguest, 2006, all but one of the Z-series trains have either Beijing or Beijing West station as their destination or origin.
[edit] T (Express)
This series of trains have a limited number of stops along their routes, only in major cities, or in some instances stops for switching the driver or locomotive. The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Te"(特) in Chinese, which most people spell as "T" in English.
[edit] K (Fast)
This series of trains stop at more stations than T-series, and normally have a slower travel speed than the T-series in the same corridor. The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Kuai"(快) in Chinese, which most people spell as "K" in English.
All K-series trains travel on lines operated by more than one railway bureau.
[edit] N (Fast Train within One Railway Bureau)
Similar to a K train, but this series of trains travel exclusively within one railway bureau. The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Nei"(内) in Chinese, which most people spell as "N" in English.
[edit] 1-5 General Fast Train
General fast trains (普通旅客快车, 普快 Pukuai for short) are slower passenger trains that stop at around half of the stations along the way, resulting in a longer travel time than the fast trains. Route numbers are always four numeric digits - a numeric prefix from 1-5 followed by a 3-digit route number.
[edit] 6-9 General Train
The general train (普通旅客列车), often simply referred to as Manche (slow train) has as many stops as possible, and is often the preferred choice for rural workers to visit their home villages. This is the slowest type of train and has the lowest priority in the Fixed Train Timetable (图定列车)
Route identifiersfor general trains are always 4 digits - a numeric prefix from 6-9 followed by a 3-digit route number.
[edit] L (Temporary Train)
This series of trains are temporary - they are not listed in the official train schedule, but are added when necessary. Many of these trains only operate at peak passenger travel season such as during the spring festival period. In addition, many new train services are originally added as L-series before train schedules are readjusted and later become regular services.
The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Lin"(临) in Chinese, which most people spell as "L" in English.
[edit] A (Train meet need)
This series is similar to the L-series, but is used when a number is taken by a regular train.
The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "An"(按) in Chinese, which most people spell as "A" in English.
[edit] S (Surburb Train)
Used for commuter traffic. They generally have a short route - for example, S801, from Meilong in Shanghai to Jiashan in Zhejiang, has a route of only 59km.
[edit] Numeric Portion (Digits 2-4)
- Trains are classified as up trains or down trains. Since Beijing is seen as the center of the network, the train from Beijing is the down service, while the train towards Beijing is the up service.
- If the railway on which the train is travelling goes to Beijing, but the train does not itself pass Beijing then trains are still described as up or down using the rule outlined above. The train which travels from Shanghai to Nanjing West on the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway) is one example where this rule would apply.
- If the railway does not connect to Beijing (e.g. the Longhai Railway), the train to south and to east is up, while to north, to west is down.
- Down trains use odd numbers, while up trains use even numbers. For example, the T103 travels from Beijing to Shanghai, and the N522 travels from Hangzhou to Meilong
- If a train changes during a journey from being an up train to a down train, or vice versa, it uses a double train number. For example, the Shanghai to Harbin train is the K56/57() - it uses K56 before Tangshan, and uses K57 after Tangshan. The Shanghai to Chengdu is the K290/291 - it uses K290 before Xuzhou (towards Beijing on the Beijing-Shanghai Railway), and uses K291 after Xuzhou(east to west on the Longhai Railway and north to south on the Baoji-Chengdu Railway).
[edit] Accommodation and Fares
There are four types of tickets that may be purchased
- Hard seat (硬座 Yìngzuò) is the basic fare, somewhat similar to the economy class on an airplane. On busier routes, passengers who cannot arrange for better seats because of overcrowding must also purchase this type of ticket.
- Soft seat (软座 Ruǎnzuò) is one level above the Hard Seat, and has comfortable seating similar to business class on airplanes.
- Hard sleeper (硬卧 Yìngwò) is the basic accommodation for an overnight train. Despite the name, the bunks comfortably accommodate anyone below six feet. Bunks are arranged three on a side in a compartment - indicated by up, middle and bottom on the ticket.
- Soft sleeper (软卧 Zhuǎnwò) contains a larger bunk bed in an enclosed cabin, two bunks to a side. These tickets are usually reserved more than a week prior to departure.
- A few trains will have a kind of accommodation more expensive than a soft bed, named "Advanced Cab"(高级软卧包厢 or 高包)
The fares are different between trains with or without air-conditioning.
[edit] Combined Transport
Combined transportation trains allow passengers to remain on a single train during two routes, without transferring to a different train at the station where the route changes.
[edit] Guangzhou-Kowloon
No. T97/98 (Beijing-Kowloon) and No. K99/100 (Shanghai-Kowloon) are combined transportation trains. Passengers can complete all formalities in their departure station, and no longer need to alight at Dongguan.
[edit] International Combined Transportation
A few trains can transport passengers out of China to places such as Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, Moscow in Russia, Almaty in Kazakhstan, P'yŏngyang in D.P.R.Korea, Hanoi in Vietnam and so on.
Since Chinese railways and those of its neighbours sometimes have different gauges of rail track passengers in some trains may need to alight at a border city and wait for a train of a different gauge to continue their journey.
[edit] Railway Management
There are three levels of management in the railway system of Mainland China
- Minister of Railways
- Railway Bureaus or Railway Group Companies
- Railway Stations
There are sixteen Railway Bureaus and two Railway Group Companies under the Minister of Railways.
- Beijing Railway Bureau
- Chengdu Railway Bureau
- Gangzhou Railway Group Co.,Ltd.
- Harbin Railway Bureau
- Hohhot Railway Bureau
- Jinan Railway Bureau
- Kunming Railway Bureau
- Lanzhou Railway Bureau
- Liuzhou Railway Bureau
- Nanchang Railway Bureau
- Qinghai-Tibet Railway Group Co., Ltd.
- Shanghai Railway Bureau
- Shenyang Railway Bureau
- Taiyuan Railway Bureau
- Wulumuqi (Ürümqi) Railway Bureau
- Wuhan Railway Bureau
- Xi'an Railway Bureau
- Zhengzhou Railway Bureau
