Passenger rail transport is one of the principal means of transport in the People's Republic of China, with 1.456 billion railway trips taken in 2008.[1] It is operated by the Ministry of Railways of the PRC. The Spring Festival Travel Season is the peak railway travel season of the year.
China is currently redeveloping its entire railway network to produce a modern high-speed network. By the end of 2010 China expects to have a railway network length covering 91,000 km, including over 8,000 km capable for 200+ km/h running.[2]
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Every train route has an identification number of two to five characters arranged by the Ministry of Railways. The first character can be alphabetic or numeric, while the second to fifth characters are all numeric.
Trains are classified as up trains or down trains. Since Beijing is seen as the centre of the network, the train from Beijing is the down service, while the train towards Beijing is the up service. Trains that do not go to Beijing are designated up or down based on the railway they are traveling on. Railways that do not go to Beijing are up or down based on whether they are going in the direction that goes towards or away from Beijing. Train routes that change from up service to down service while traveling in a certain direction might use two different route numbers. For example a train from Qingdao to Xian begins as up service as it travels approaching Beijing and changes to down service when it reaches the point where its travel is away from Beijing all the while travelling westerly.
Down trains use odd numbers, while up trains use even numbers. For example, the T103 travels from Beijing to Shanghai, and the K9008 travels from Shenzhen to Yueyang
The first character of the route identifier indicates the class of the passenger train, often determined by the speed and the relative number of stops the train makes along the way.
As the Rule of The Edit and Management of Train Timetable, a rule issued by Ministry of Railway, the arrangement of following passenger train classes was put into practice from April 1, 2009.
This is a series for long-distance high-speed trains. G1-G5998 is used for the trains that run in more than one railway bureau's territory, while G6001-G9998 is used for the trains that run in only one railway bureau's territory.
This series has become available after August 1, 2008 with the opening of Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Rail. It represents the EMU trains with shorter travel distances, and mainly running within one railway bureau. The top speed is 350 km/h. C1-C1998 for the trains running through two or more railway bureaus, C2001-C9998 for the trains running within one railway bureau.
This series has become available after the sixth rise in speed of the railway on April 18, 2007. The top speed will be 250 km/h. These trains are powered using CRH series electric multiple units (EMUs) named "Harmony" (Chinese:和谐号, Hexiehao). D1-D3998 for the trains running through two or more railway bureaus, D4001-D9998 for the trains running within one railway bureau.
As of 2009, D-series trains provide fast frequent service between main cities in China. For example:
Besides, a few other nighttime D trains go to more remote destinations, such as the services between Shanghai and Beijing.
Though its name in Chinese (直达 Zhida) technically implies a "non-stop" overnight train, some of these trains have several stops between the two stations. The majority have both soft sleepers and hard sleepers, while some Z trains have only soft sleepers. The top speed is 160 km/h. It uses the numbers Z1-Z9998 without regard to the number of railway bureaus entered.
This series became available after the fifth rise in speed of the railway on April 18, 2004. Early on (2004–2006), all but one of the Z-series trains had either Beijing or Beijing West station as their destination or origin. As of 2009, Z-series trains also operated along the Yangtze Valley as well, providing overnight service from Wuhan to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shenzhen.
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 top speed is 140 km/h. T1-T4998 for the trains running through two or more railway bureaus, T5001-T9998 for the trains running within one railway bureau. The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Te"(特) in Chinese.
This series of trains stop at more stations than T-series. The top speed is 120 km/h. The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Kuai"(快) in Chinese. K1-K6998 are used for the trains that run in more than one railway bureau, while K7001 to K9998 will be used for the trains that run in only one railway bureau.
After April 18, 2004, N-series trains, which represent fast trains travelling exclusively within one railway bureau, were derived from K-series. Then all K-series trains travel on lines operated by more than one railway bureau. After April 1, 2009, N-series was re-merged to K-series after Apr 1,2009.
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. The top speed is 120 km/h. Route numbers are always four numeric digits - a numeric prefix from 1-5 followed by a 3-digit route number. 1001-1998 for the trains running through three or more railway bureaus, 2001-3998 for the trains running through two railway bureaus, and 4001-5998 for the trains that run in only one railway bureau.
The general train (普通旅客列车, 普客 "Puke" for short) has as many stops as possible, and is often the preferred choice for rural workers to visit their home villages because of low ticket price. This is the slowest type of train and has the lowest priority in the Fixed Train Timetable (图定列车). The top speed is 100 km/h.
Route identifiers for general trains are always 4 digits - a numeric prefix from 6-7 followed by a 3-digit route number. 6001-6198 are used for the trains that run in more than one railway bureau, while 7001-7598 will be used for the trains that run in only one railway bureau.
The Commuter Train (通勤列车), is usually runs for railway staff, and generally, their tickets are not available for passengers. Route identifiers for commuter trains are 4 digits with a range of 7601-8998.
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. L1-L6998 are used for the temporary trains that run in more than one railway bureau, while L7001 to L9998 will be used for the trains that run in only one railway bureau.
The standard pronunciation on the railway system is "Lin"(临) in Chinese.
This series is mainly used for trains that run to popular sights, such as the S2 Line of Beijing Suburban Railway, which runs from Beijing North to Yanqing, and connects to the Great Wall. Besides, travel agencies can apply to the Ministry of Railways for organizing additional passenger trains for the tours.
There are seven types of tickets that may be purchased
The fares are different between trains with or without air-conditioning.
The majority of train tickets in China are thermally printed paper tickets displaying the train's origin and destination, service number, price, date and travel time, accommodation type, class and seat number, as well as a barcode for security checks. Some tickets on the CRH routes such as Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou or Guangzhou-Shenzhen use machine-readable tickets i.e. tickets on the Nanjing-Shanghai route have a magnetically encoded stripe for future use of automatic ticket inspection gates being implemented at major stations along the route, whilst tickets on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen line have embedded RFID microchips which can be read by proximity readers mounted above the ticket gates.
Most trains feature some kind of on-board catering service. Vendors with trolleys walk through the train selling snacks, drinks, fruit, newspapers etc. On shorter distance trains, there is a cafe-car selling light snacks, tea, coffee, beer etc. whilst long-haul trains have full service restaurant cars.
Smoking is generally not permitted in the accommodation or washroom areas of the trains but is allowed in the restaurant/cafe area and in the vestibules between the cars. On modern trains such as CRH or Beijing Suburban railway smoking is completely banned. On the Guangzhou-Kowloon cross-border train smoking is only permitted in the cafe car.
Since Jul 12,2011, the e-ticket system has adopted on Beijing-Tianjin High Speed Rail, through Dec 23,2011,all the train ticket can be buy at the office ticket website ( http://www.12306.cn ) except the train will depature in 2 hours, and if you use the 2nd geneartion ID Card, and the departure and arrive station all at Beijing-Tianjin High Speed Rail, Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Rail, Shanghai-Hangzhou High Speed Rail and Shanghai-Nanjing High Speed Rail, you can use your id card as the ticket pass the auto ticket gate without the traditional ticket, and you can get the ticket at 31 days after you take the train at any ticket office for eimbursement, you also can change the traditional ticket before train departure at any ticket office or TVM.
Otherwise, you should first change to the traditional ticket before train departure.
You can change the train time or refund at the website if you have not change the traditional ticket and 2 hours before the train depature, otherwise you should do this at the ticket office at station and change the traditional ticket first.
You can use ID Card, Passport, Hongkong，Macau or Taiwan travel passport at the website to buy the ticket, your name and passport number will printed on the ticket.
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.
No. T97B/98B (Beijing-Kowloon) and No. T99B/100B (Shanghai-Kowloon) are combined transportation trains. Passengers can complete all formalities in their departure station, and no longer need to alight at Dongguan.
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 North Korea, Hanoi in Vietnam and so on.
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