China’s Official Train Ticket Smartphone App Now Coming in November, Maybe

China’s notoriously corrupt Railway Ministry has been having what we might generously call a tough time with its 12306 online ticket sales website. That’s mostly because the site doesn’t work, and somehow the Ministry spent $52 million on it. Frequent readers may also recall that the Ministry had promised a 12306 smartphone app was coming in September, but now it’s mid-October and the app still hasn’t been released. Well, good news. The Ministry now says the app is coming in November. Maybe.

According to information released by the Ministry, the app’s design has already been completed and it is now being debugged and optimized. Apparently there are a lot of bugs, though, because the app will apparently be released in late November at the earliest, and possibly later. The app will reportedly launch with both iOS and Android versions available, though, so that’s something.

Given the app’s history of delays and the Railway Ministry’s notoriously buggy and easily-broken website, I wouldn’t hold out a ton of hope for the Ministry’s app whenever it does come out, but you never know. Until then, though, there are alternatives from cool startups for folks who would prefer to purchase their tickets through smartphone apps. The Ministry wants to remind everyone that these apps are unofficial and don’t come from the Ministry itself, but given the Ministry’s development history I suspect that’s more of a selling point than it is a deterrent.

[Qianjiang Evening News via Sina Tech]