Passengers enter the Nanjing Railway Station in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Jan. 8, 2009. During the Spring Festival travel period this year, known as Chunyun in Chinese, more than 6.19 million person-time is expected to depart from Nanjing, over 2.71 million of whom would depart by train, according to the Chunyun Affairs Office of Nanjing on Jan. 1.

Police force realignment

One quiet change Xinhua learned from Railway police was that high-speed trains had taken the back seat this year as police resources were transferred to standard and temporary trains to safeguard rural migrants, students and the low paid.

Since the launch of high-speed rail services in 2006, the safety of trains labeled with CRH (China Railway High-speed) and running at 200 to 350 km per hour have been cause for concern. Although CRH trains share the same number of police officers with standard and temporary trains, resources have been purposely deployed in the latter.

Practice over the past three years showed that ordinary and temporary trains, known as "Puke" and "Linke", which charged less, had more stops and ran the slowest were more vulnerable to thefts and crimes.

When the economy was solid and brisk, rural migrants usually went home for a short break. But this time, with little hope of returning immediately, many migrants are actually moving their "homes" and traveling with more valuables. Their luggage includes buckets, electric fans, rice cookers, TVs and clothes hangers.

"In tough times, the realignment of police forces is necessary and can benefit the most vulnerable," Chai says. The Beijing Bureau alone has deployed 300 extra police to strengthen standard and temporary services.

As export-oriented companies on the eastern coast have gone broke or shut down temporarily, rural migrants have been returning home since early November.

This has to some extent reduced current numbers of passengers, but the weakening economy had also complicated this year's transport trends.

As the Spring Festival approaches, students, rural migrants, tourists and those going home to visit their families can become aggravated by the stress of travel, Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping has said.

After the Lunar New Year, uncertainty will arise, he explained, as new job opportunities are yet to be found.

Ticket scalping

On Wednesday afternoon, Wang Yongping joined a forum named "Qiangguo" or "Rejuvenating Nation" on the state-run People.com website where critics described ticket scalping as a "malicious tumor" and challenged him over the rumored collusion between railway staff and ticket scalpers.

Wang reiterated that the Railway Ministry would deal harshly with malpractice in ticket sales.