14.25 million passengers. This number was cold, but I stared at it for a long time.
On the seventh day of the first lunar month, which was the last day of the long holiday, I was stuck in traffic on the expressway back to the city, and I saw this news while scrolling through my phone. 18.733 million, which is a new high for a single day during the Spring Festival Transport. At that time, I could see endless red headlights in front of me, but I was wondering in my heart whether those people crowded in the train station, who were packed like a photo, were like me, eager to return home.
Today is February 9th? , no, it is already February 26th now, and the Spring Festival has already passed many days. However, I was still a little confused when I saw this date. Spring Festival travel is really a huge monster that is loved and hated at the same time.
Who were those "20% off" tickets sold to?
It was mentioned in the news that some routes that are not popular have discounts as low as 20% off. 20% off! I made some calculations and found that the hard-seat fare for train K822 from Xinyang to Shenzhen East is 42.5 yuan. Is this price cheap enough?
But the question arises, why are these so-called "non-popular routes" not popular? The reason is that no one intends to go there at all!
During the Spring Festival, the flow is always in one direction. Before the festival, it flows from the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta toward the inland areas and toward hometowns. After the festival, it will flow back again. This situation is like a tide. Its power is extremely huge, but its direction is simple and crude.
Those tickets for unpopular directions with a 20% discount are like a trace of tenderness leaking from the gaps of this huge machine. Who is it given to? It is given to those who go against the flow of people and have to go in the opposite direction. Maybe it’s a grandma who has settled her parents in her hometown and is going to a big city to take care of her grandson after the holidays? Or maybe they are people who want to visit small cities during the off-season without having to rush to work?
Nocturnal vehicle, like a firefly
1,674 additional passenger trains have been opened, many of which are high-speed trains running at night. Traffic on the main transportation lines such as the Beijing-Guangzhou Line, Beijing-Shanghai Line, and Beijing-Harbin Line will not stop running even late at night.
My friend took the nighttime high-speed train in Changsha back to Guangzhou the day before yesterday. He said that he fell asleep after getting on the train. He was given earplugs and an eye mask. When he woke up, he suddenly realized that the sky was about to light up, and he arrived at the stop.
He called this the "time-space folding technique", which uses the time spent sleeping to travel without causing any delays during the day. It sounds quite cool, but if you think about it seriously, isn't this still forced? It is difficult to get high-speed rail tickets during the day, or the fares are more expensive, so we can only choose to travel in the dark. We are like a group of ants driven by time, and even sleep has to make way for the rush.
Are there enough votes left? and “votes left.”
Look at the remaining ticket information, it’s very interesting.
Compared with "there are still enough votes", "there are enough votes left" is only one word different, but it is very different. "Enough" means that you can pick and choose, and you can even put your feet up and lie down on the seat opposite. And "there are still votes left" is a careful reminder, that is, hurry up, if you are still hesitant, your votes will be gone.
From February 16 onwards, there are sufficient remaining tickets for traveling from Beijing to Shanghai, and then from Shanghai back to Beijing. What does this mean? This means that all those who should leave have already left, and those who should go back to work have also gone back. The grand performance of New Year transportation basically comes to an end after the 16th day of the first lunar month. There are only some people left like me, who live in a hazy way in daily life and do not follow conventional rules, who are still looking for tickets slowly.
Market-based fares sound very high-end
"Give full play to the role of the market-based fare mechanism."
This is too official. If you want to convert it into an easy-to-understand expression, it is: significantly raise the price when it is in the popular stage (although it is not clearly stated in the news), and implement a large price reduction in the unpopular stage. Just like the image of a shrewd vegetable vendor, spinach is priced at eight yuan per catty in the morning because everyone wants to buy it; in the evening, it only costs two yuan a handful, and I hope you can buy it as soon as possible, otherwise it will spoil tomorrow.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I have no idea.
For the railway department, it is about maximizing the use of resources. For those white-collar workers who have money but no time, it is worthwhile to spend more money to buy punctuality and comfort. For me, a poor and free (or lazy) unemployed vagrant, I can wait until the time window when the price drops, and then go out slowly.
The G4945 train with a 2.30% discount runs from Nanjing South to Guiyang North, and its second-class ticket price is 244 yuan. If it's during the daytime, wouldn't it cost five to six hundred yuan? There was a wave of excitement in my heart, and I wanted to go to Guiyang to taste fish in sour soup.
Waiting for ticket purchase, that "accepts new trains"
What touched my heart the most was the last sentence, that is, you can use the waitlist ticket purchase function and check "Accept new trains". The additional night high-speed trains will give priority to those who are on the waiting list.
Does this look like your life?
You stand there waiting, not knowing whether there is a car, not knowing when the car will come, or even where the car will go. You can only check "I accept" first and accept all unknown arrangements. Then one day, late at night, I suddenly received a text message: The Gxxxx train you were waiting for has been successfully cashed.
That feeling is probably the Spring Festival version of "dreams come true."
write at the end
I just went to 12306 again to take a look. It is already February 26th. The Spring Festival Transport is not over yet and will continue until March 13th. However, the most lively period has passed.
The 14.25 million passengers will turn into specific people, the 1,674 additional trains will turn into specific people, and the 170 million tickets will turn into specific people. Some of these people are tired, some are excited, and some are confused. They are transported from one place to another place by the train.
Life goes on.
I should also think about which station I want to buy my ticket for.
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