Life of Guangzhou - Snowfall Causes Traffic Accidents, Travel Delays

People walk in the snow in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, on Feb. 7, 2010. A snowfall hit the city on Sunday, which local people called an auspicious greeting for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year. Photo: Xinhua

Adverse weather conditions caused equipment malfunctions and cancellations on the new Zhengzhou-Xi'an high-speed railway service on its second day of operations.

The Zhengzhou Railway Bureau in Central China's Henan Province announced at 2 pm Sunday that three trains were cancelled after one to Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province was delayed in Gongyi for over two hours, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The high-speed railway started operations Saturday and is expected to reduce transportation pressure during the peak season and encourage tourism in the two provinces.

The Zhengzhou-Xi'an line was not the only service to suffer problems. More than 10,000 passengers were stranded at Guangzhou South Railway Station on Saturday following equipment failures. The station is the boarding point for the Guangzhou-Wuhan high-speed railway.

The passengers were informed at 4:30 pm that technical problems at Shaoguan Station in South China's Guangdong Province would delay several high-speed trains until 7 pm.

Armed police officers were deployed to maintain order.

The situation became tense as passengers complained that there were no food shops or vending machines where they were waiting in the arrivals hall, and there were long queues for toilets through the afternoon.

"The food shops are all in the departure hall which is on the third floor. But we cannot let too many passengers go up there all at one time for safety reasons," one member of staff told the newspaper.

The Guangzhou Railway Group said free food and drinks were distributed to passengers, but many said they were unaware of the arrangement.

The Guangzhou-Wuhan high-speed railway is expected to take 630,000 passengers home before Spring Festival, which falls February 14.

The country's railway network has transported 5.03 million passengers as of Saturday, the eighth day of the annual Spring Festival transport peak, the Ministry of Railway said Sunday.

The figure is 105,000 more than the same period last year, Xinhua reported.

Beijing railways had transported 347,418 passengers by Saturday, and the figures in Guangzhou and Shanghai stood at 576,710 and 325,190 respectively.

The country's railways are expected to transport 210 million passengers during the travel peak.

And as a new cold snap is to hit most parts of Central and East China next week, The highways have been affected too.

The Beijing-Zhuhai Highway, a main route connecting North and South China, was reported as having 100 car accidents Friday.

One minor accident on the busy route caused five hours of traffic jams due to the increased traffic flow ahead of Spring Festival, the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

Beijing West Railway Station stopped selling platform tickets Saturday as the daily passenger flow surpassed 300,000.

"We used to sell about 15,000 platform tickets per day, equivalent to the number of passengers on 10 trains. By not selling platform tickets, we have enough space for passengers who really need to board the train," an official from Beijing West Railway Station told the China News Service Saturday.

For convenience, railway stations in major cities often change their ticket sale policies over the peak period.

Passengers in Beijing are able to buy tickets 10 days in advance while passengers in Shanghai can buy train tickets six days ahead.

[More China News]