05:11, 15/11/2018

Train tickets for Lunar New Year festival 2019: Not enough for demand

The railways began selling train tickets for the Lunar New Year festival from October 1. The Lunar New Year will come in two months, but up to now, most of the train tickets for the peak time have been sold out.

The railways began selling train tickets for the Lunar New Year festival from October 1. The Lunar New Year will come in two months, but up to now, most of the train tickets for the peak time have been sold out.

According to Nguyen Thi Lan Hue, manager of passenger transport of Nha Trang Railway, the number of train tickets for the coming Lunar New Year festival has increased by 7,000 over that in 2017. The railways has a lot of measures to serve the travel demand on that occasion such as more trains, more trips, and more carriages. However, the travel demand on the Lunar New Year occasion is far more than the supply. By end October, Nha Trang Railway sold out 3,640 train tickets for the Lunar New Year time, costing about VND5.1 billion. The peak time is from January 25, 2019 to February 6, 2019 (before the Lunar New Year) and from February 7, 2019 to February 16, 2019 (after the Lunar New Year). Up to now, tickets from Hue to Hanoi on the peak time have been almost sold out. The travel demand from Nha Trang to Hue is very high but tickets for the short routes haven’t started to be sold as the railways prioritizes selling train tickets for longer trips.

In previous Lunar New Year festivals, the railways set up a train departing in Nha Trang to the north, supplying about 600 – 700 tickets on this route. However, such the train hasn’t been allow to be set up, only about 284 tickets are distributed on this route each day from January 25, 2019 to February 3, 2019. According to Le Hong Son - deputy director of Nha Trang Railway, with the big travel demand, Nha Trang Railway submitted Saigon Railway Joint Stock Company a suggestion to set up a new train in Nha Trang on the coming Lunar New Year time to serve passengers traveling from Nha Trang to Hue. Nha Trang Railway is waiting for the reply from Sai Gon Railway.

In case of meeting problems like losing tickets, changing or refunding, etc. the railways warns passengers to present identity papers, keep code of the boarding pass, etc. Passengers also should buy tickets at railway stations, booking offices and agents, shouldn’t buy tickets on the black market.

Manh Hung

Translated by T.T