What are the factors to consider when adjusting the price of high-speed rail? Will it expand to more lines in the future?
2024-05-09
"This high-speed rail is not just a simple price increase, but a more flexible pricing approach with ups and downs, which can improve railway revenue to a certain extent." "This high-speed rail price adjustment may have a certain experimental color, and the range of adjusted routes may be expanded in the future based on the operating income of the adjusted routes." Starting from June 15th, multiple high-speed rail routes will adjust their prices, with higher upper limit ticket prices and lower discount ticket prices. ". Several experts further pointed out to the reporter from Pengpai News that the market-oriented pricing of high-speed rail is expected to continue to expand to other lines. Recently, the official website of Railway 12306 released four price adjustment announcements. The announcement points out that in order to further improve the quality of high-speed rail operation and meet the different travel needs of passengers, it has been decided to establish a flexible pricing mechanism starting from June 15, 2024, for high-speed trains running at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour or above on the Wuhan Guangzhou section of the Beijing Guangzhou high-speed rail, the Shanghai Kunming high-speed rail Shanghai Hangzhou section, the Shanghai Kunming high-speed rail Hangzhou Changsha section, and the Hangzhou Ningbo section of the Hangzhou Shenzhen railway. The pricing will be optimized and adjusted according to market conditions, distinguishing factors such as seasons, dates, time periods, and seat types, and implementing a differentiated discount floating strategy. High speed rail is not the first time that prices have been adjusted. According to a comparison by a reporter from Pengpai News, overall, the upper limit of some ticket prices (i.e. "announced ticket prices") after the adjustment of the four routes has increased compared to the current ticket prices, with some increasing by about 20%. However, the announcement also listed multiple examples of lower minimum ticket prices, with some sites having lower minimum ticket prices by about 34% compared to current prices. The above four announcements all point out that the ticket prices between stations will be subject to a floating ticket price system with the upper limit of the published ticket price and a 5.5% discount as the lower limit, implementing multiple levels and flexible discounts. This is not the first time high-speed rail has adjusted prices. In 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice on reforming and improving the passenger ticket price policy for high-speed trains. Starting from January 2016, high-speed train ticket prices were relaxed and independently priced by China Railway Corporation. This means that high-speed rail ticket prices will gradually move towards market regulation and no longer remain unchanged. According to the above notice, the ticket prices for first-class and second-class passengers of high-speed trains with a designed speed of over 200 kilometers per hour operating on railways wholly owned and controlled by central management enterprises shall be independently formulated by railway transportation enterprises in accordance with price laws and regulations; The ticket prices for business seats, first-class seats, and dynamic sleeper seats, as well as the ticket prices for newly built railway passenger dedicated lines controlled by social capital investment, will continue to be subject to market regulation, and will be independently formulated by railway transportation enterprises based on market supply and demand and competitive factors. Afterwards, some high-speed railway lines began to adjust their prices. Taking the Beijing Shanghai high-speed railway as an example, after its launch at the end of 2020, the railway conducted some market-oriented explorations in ticket prices. It took the lead in implementing floating ticket prices for high-speed train sets with speeds of 300 to 350 kilometers per hour. Based on passenger flow, it differentiated seasons, time periods, seat types, etc., and implemented high-quality and favorable prices, with some increasing and others decreasing. According to a reporter from Pengpai News, it has been a year since the last high-speed rail price adjustment. Previously, starting from May 30, 2023, the published ticket prices for high-speed trains operating on the Liunan Passenger Dedicated Line, Jiaozhou Jinan Passenger Dedicated Line, and Nanjing Guangzhou High Speed Railway were optimized and adjusted, as well as for high-speed trains operating on the Nanjing Hangzhou High Speed Railway and the Shanghai Nanjing Intercity Railway with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour or above. The execution ticket prices between stations will be in public
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