12306 has launched new features! The “Ticket Sales Transformation” brings warmth to millions of travelers.
As the year draws to a close, the small train tickets represent the hopes of millions returning home. Recently, the railway ticketing platform 12306 has launched a reservation service for students and migrant workers, allowing eligible travelers to book round-trip tickets for the 2025 Spring Festival travel season.
What new services does 12306 offer? According to a relevant official from the China National Railway Group’s passenger department, from December 12, 2024, to February 12, 2025, eligible student travelers can reserve tickets for travel between December 28, 2024, and February 28, 2025, through the “Student Reservation Ticketing Service” section on the 12306 mobile app. From December 15, 2024, to February 7, 2025, migrant workers who have passed real-name verification can reserve tickets for travel between December 31, 2024, and February 23, 2025, via the “Migrant Workers Spring Festival Reservation Ticketing Service” section.
“Each account can submit a maximum of three orders simultaneously,” “Each order can include five combinations of ‘train number + seat type’ for one travel date,” and “Reservations can be made for up to nine travelers, including oneself.” After submitting reservation information 17 days and 23 hours before departure, the railway department will analyze the reservation situation in a timely manner to provide references for reasonable capacity allocation, better meeting travelers’ needs.
Once, 12306 was merely a ticketing platform, with each ticket carrying a sense of nostalgia. In recent years, 12306 has continuously upgraded its services, providing special care for specific groups, making the transformation of ticket sales a warm experience for millions of travelers.
From supporting internet and mobile payment channels to launching online meal ordering services; from establishing a smooth membership program to fully promoting standby ticket purchasing; from changing the ticket purchase, refund, and rescheduling window from two hours before departure to 30 minutes, to waiving refund fees during special periods like the pandemic; from promoting the railway smooth code and online seat selection to pre-filling ticket purchase needs, ticket sale reminders, and fully implementing digital electronic invoices… The people’s railway continuously responds to the new expectations of the public for travel, solving the “first kilometer” challenges of journeys.
Every second, over 1,000 tickets are sold; peak daily visits reach around 50 billion. The total number of registered users on 12306 has exceeded 700 million, making it the world’s most visited and largest ticketing platform, transforming the once long queues at train stations into history.
While ticket sales are changing, capacity is also evolving.
China’s railways are accelerating: on the eve of the 2024 National Day, the operational mileage of China’s railways surpassed 160,000 kilometers, with high-speed rail accounting for over 46,000 kilometers, maintaining the world’s leading position.
Connecting points to form lines and weaving lines into networks, high-speed trains traverse the water towns of Jiangnan, cross the mountains of the northwest, and race across the snowy plains of the northeast, painting a more beautiful picture of “poetry and distance.”
Currently, the main high-speed rail corridors of “eight vertical and eight horizontal” have achieved an operational scale of 80%; railways cover 99% of cities with populations over 200,000, and since the new era, 145 counties have ended their history of no railway access; high-speed rail covers 96% of cities with populations over 500,000.
Historically, during the Spring Festival travel season, especially during peak periods, issues of supply and demand imbalances for train tickets still exist due to the highly concentrated, uneven, and unidirectional flow of railway passengers.
The Spring Festival travel season will officially begin on January 14, 2025. A vibrant “mobile epic” is about to unfold. The network is expanding, services are improving, and a warmer travel experience is worth looking forward to!
