Ctrip Selling Train Tickets Again in Wake of Railway Ministry Absorption News

Yes, the rumors were true: China is dismantling its hilariously corrupt Railway Ministry and absorbing its duties into the Transportation Ministry. It’s not fully clear what all the repercussions of this will be yet or how it will affect 12306, the Railway Ministry’s online ticket sales platform. But Chinese online travel giant Ctrip has already jumped back into the online ticket sales game, and is now offering train bookings on its website again.

As the Railway Ministry is still the only organization that can directly sell tickets, what Ctrip is actually offering is to buy your tickets for you, but from a consumer perspective, there’s not much of a difference. And if you’re wondering where the profit is in this for Ctrip, it’s here: every ticket booking through the site comes with a mandatory 20 RMB ($3.17) insurance surcharge. That may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that at any moment there are around ten million people riding China’s trains, it could definitely add up fast. And if consumers are buying tickets online anyway, it’s hard to deny that Ctrip’s purchase experience is much smoother and more convenient than the buggy official site, even if it is also a little more expensive.

Ctrip has actually done this before; it acquired a train ticket website back in 2011 and operated a similar ticket purchasing service through its site until April of last year, when it and other sites like 360Buy were ordered to stop by authorities. Now, with the Railway Ministry on its way out, it seems the market for train tickets may be reopened. Current Railway Minister Sheng Guangzu said several days ago that train ticket sales would be “marketized,” and while he didn’t mention online services specifically, that would seem the ideal way to do it given the weaknesses of 12306 as an e-commerce platform.

(Beijing News via Sina Tech)