Wang Mengshu, a deputy to the National People's Congress and deputy chief engineer of China Railway Group Ltd., said in an interview that high-speed rail fares will rise sooner or later, and the specific way to raise them requires multi-party research before a decision is made. Photo/Visual China

Wang Mengshu: High-speed rail fares will rise sooner or later but not arbitrarily

Wang Mengshu, a deputy to the National People's Congress, deputy chief engineer of China Railway Group Ltd., and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was born in 1938 and is now 79 years old. He has attracted attention for repeatedly speaking bluntly about certain shortcomings of the railway system. On the 7th, Wang Mengshu said in an interview that railway fares cannot be raised arbitrarily.

Trunk railways cannot adopt a mixed-ownership construction model

The Beijing News: Recently, news that high-speed rail bullet trains along the southeast coast will raise fares has attracted much attention. Some believe this is a signal that high-speed rail fares will rise across the board. Is that so?

Wang Mengshu: The main increase is on the Shanghai-Hangzhou section (note: the Shanghai-Hangzhou section). At the time, this section was built under a mixed-ownership model, with private enterprises contributing some money and the state contributing some. Now first-class seats are to rise by 70% at once, because private enterprises put in money. But I think it cannot rise that much all at once; the increase should be reasonable.

The Beijing News: You mean the fare increase for high-speed rail bullet trains along the southeast coast is due to the mixed-ownership construction model.

Wang Mengshu: Yes, because of mixed ownership. In our railway system, mixed ownership absolutely cannot be used, especially for trunk railways. For non-trunk railways, it can be relaxed and mixed ownership can be used; if local areas want to use mixed ownership, they can do so freely. But trunk railways must remain state-owned.

The Beijing News: What about other state-owned lines? Are there plans to raise fares?

Wang Mengshu: They will rise, sooner or later, but not arbitrarily. Exactly how to raise them is not something China Railway Corporation can decide alone. With nearly more than 20 railway bureaus, which places will rise and which will not, and by how much, the state must study. It is not a matter of raising fares whenever one wants.

The Beijing News: But some believe that as high-speed rail passenger volume increases, overall costs are falling, so fares should not only not rise but should actually fall.

Wang Mengshu: The current high-speed rail fare was set in 2011. At that time, the need to repay debts was considered—300 billion yuan a year had to be repaid. That money was spread into the fare, and mechanical maintenance, operating costs, and labor costs all had to be considered. At the time it felt a bit high, but over these years prices have risen by about 3% a year on average, while fares have not moved, which means fares have relatively fallen. So fares inevitably must rise.

The Beijing News: Some suggest fares should be adjusted flexibly—rising during peak periods and falling during off-peak periods.

Wang Mengshu: Railway fares cannot be raised arbitrarily. If adjusted flexibly, it would involve several railway bureaus. Each railway bureau does its own accounting. So once fares are changed and adjusted flexibly, there would be no way to calculate afterward. Take some high-speed rail lines in the west: occupancy is not high, and during off-seasons sometimes the entire train has no passengers, yet it still runs. Railways are the nation's main arteries and must strictly follow operating plans; they cannot simply decide not to run.

When building new lines, priority should be given to the northwest region

The Beijing News: Some people also report that with high-speed rail, some Z-prefix and D-prefix trains have been suspended. For example, along the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail, cities such as Changzhou and Zhengzhou to Beijing used to have Z-prefix and D-prefix trains with fares much cheaper than high-speed rail, but now only high-speed rail tickets are available, making people feel forced to take high-speed rail. Is that reasonable?

Wang Mengshu: Right now there are only two tracks, one for each direction. The Shanghai Railway Bureau says it wants to build more lines, turning the current two tracks into two tracks in each direction, that is, four tracks. Then two tracks could run fast trains and two could run slow trains, which would solve the problem. Many railway bureaus have this idea.

The Beijing News: That is, the current two tracks can only meet the demand for running high-speed trains? There is no way to run slow trains, and if you want to take a slow train you can only wait for new lines to be built?

Wang Mengshu: Yes, the line capacity is already full, and there are no conditions to run slow trains.

The Beijing News: So are there plans to build more lines?

Wang Mengshu: This issue was considered before, but now the northwest is more short of lines, so the road network in the northwest must be built first.

The Beijing News: Some believe that building high-speed rail in the west may lose money because there is not enough passenger flow.

Wang Mengshu: The west cannot develop without railways. Back then there was also considerable opposition to the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail, with people saying there would not be enough passenger flow. We later said build first and develop later, because waiting until development is sufficient to build would be too late. The original standard was that a railway could be built when passenger flow reached 30%; now in the west it is not 30%—a line can be built when passenger flow reaches 15%. Construction drives development, and this is a process. Road network construction must be planned as a whole nationwide under one standard. When some regions have become prosperous, we must consider the regions that have not.

Efforts are under way to add dining cars to high-speed rail train sets

The Beijing News: You just mentioned that fare increases for high-speed rail are a trend. If fares rise, shouldn't service levels also improve? For example, shouldn't outrageously priced boxed meals be cheaper?

Wang Mengshu: If you have complaints about those outrageously priced boxed meals, you can raise them. At first they were 60 yuan a box, and later we pushed them down.

The Beijing News: How did you push them down?

Wang Mengshu: Once I was in a business-class carriage and saw that a boxed meal was 60 yuan. I asked why it was so expensive. The train conductor explained that it was not their responsibility; the boxed meals were handled by a private company. Later we called the person in charge of the private company and asked them to provide more 15-yuan boxed meals.

The Beijing News: But why do those selling boxed meals wear railway employee uniforms?

Wang Mengshu: They are all from private companies too, not railway employees.

The Beijing News: Have you considered taking this back from the private companies?

Wang Mengshu: Right now the main consideration is adding dining cars. High-speed trains currently use distributed traction: one locomotive pulls one passenger car, forming one set, and this set is generally not uncoupled. Four sets make eight carriages. Eight-car sets are connected together, so adding a dining car is very troublesome because open flames cannot be used, and ways to heat food must be considered.

The Beijing News: Has the heating problem been solved?

Wang Mengshu: Work is under way now, and some trains have already added dining cars.

The Beijing News: Was passengers' dining demand not considered in the original design?

Wang Mengshu: High-speed rail travel times are short, generally just four or five hours, so bringing some food yourself is enough.

The Beijing News: At previous sessions of the National People's Congress, you submitted for eight consecutive years the "Proposal on Mandatory Installation of Tire Pressure Devices." Did you submit it again this year?

Wang Mengshu: I submitted it again this year. When the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was built, 140,000 people participated in construction. Not one person died from lack of oxygen, but more than 100 died because of tire blowouts. Later, domestic research on tire pressure monitoring systems came out and was very good. Foreign equipment monitors once every 20 seconds, while domestic equipment monitors every 6 seconds. But the domestic one just could not be promoted, and foreign equipment was used. There is also a problem with the relevant standard-setting bodies. In one year's proposal I said they were not actively safeguarding the interests of domestic enterprises. Now the standard-setting problem has basically been solved, and I have written a ninth proposal to push it further.

Voices

The west cannot develop without railways. The original standard was that a railway could be built when passenger flow reached 30%; now in the west it is not 30%—a line can be built when passenger flow reaches 15%. Construction drives development, and this is a process. Road network construction must be planned as a whole nationwide under one standard. When some regions have become prosperous, we must consider the regions that have not. —Wang Mengshu

On some high-speed rail lines in the west, occupancy is not high, and during off-seasons sometimes the entire train has no passengers, yet it still runs. Railways are the nation's main arteries and must strictly follow operating plans; they cannot simply decide not to run. —Wang Mengshu

★ News background

High-speed rail fares along the southeast coast will rise

On February 14, a staff member on the 12306 customer service hotline confirmed that the fare adjustment for high-speed rail bullet trains along the southeast coast would take effect on April 21 this year, involving bullet train services at speeds of 200-250 km/h on the Hangzhou-Ningbo line, Hangzhou-Shenzhen line, and others. According to reports, under this fare adjustment for high-speed rail bullet trains along the southeast coast, second-class seats will rise by 25% to 30%, and first-class seats by 65% to 70%. Regarding the fare adjustment, some have raised questions, arguing that whether fares should rise and by how much should involve price hearing procedures and "open-door pricing."