Special armed police joined normal patrol officers and police dogs sniffed around luggage offices and platforms for prohibited goods.

At first sight, the security at Beijing Railway station, China's busiest transport center before the Lunar New Year which falls on January 26, was roughly the same as last year.

But for many railway staff, this year's 40-day Spring Festival passenger rush is a "real test" of their capability to promote harmony as global financial crisis and the weakening domestic economy have aggravated the winter blues.

The Railway Minister predicted the first passenger peak to come on January 20 to 24. Public grumbles over the hardship of obtaining a ticket, however, have reached a clamor on the Internet following the sudden death of a man in his 60s last Wednesday in a ticket office of the Chengzhan Railway Station, Huangzhou.

While police are investigating the man's identity and cause of death, people in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai compiled on-line ticket purchase guidebooks which invited public praise, but once again put railway authorities in the hot seat.

There were compliments too. The two new temporary toilets set up in the Hangzhou Railway Station, for instance, were described as "the warmth in the severe cold".

Chai Zeliang, deputy chief of the Beijing Bureau of the Railroad Police, says that whatever criticisms passengers might have, one principle for all railway staff was "to exercise restraint".

"The central government proposed the building of a harmonious society. The railways are just one element, but without harmony in the railways and the Spring Festival passenger rush, a harmonious society is out of the question," he says.

Still, by Chai's own admission, complaints, grumbles, even bickering happen almost every day. "The truth is that both passengers and railway staff were stressed as China's railway capacity falls far behind demand."

Almost 188 million people are expected to travel by train in the holiday season, up 8 percent or 13.73 million from last year. The daily rail traffic will grow by 340,000 people to a record average high of 4.7 million.

One hard fact for travelers banking on trains is the per capita railway mileage of only 6 cm, shorter than a cigarette. What's worse, many rail tracks must serve dual purposes as passenger and freight transport.

"When traffic is lighter, it's easy for people to travel light-hearted. At rush periods, many passengers have already grappled with road traffic jams before facing boisterous crowds and long hours waiting in railway stations. They have reason to beless tolerant," says Chai. He has been working with the Beijing bureau for 20 years.

The unpredictable

The loudest public complaint zeroed in on ticket shortages as freezing temperatures and biting winds compounded the resentment of standing in the open air for hours. The railway authority, however, deemed safety the top priority concerning harmony.

In a mobilization order issued in early January, China's Railroad Police Authority under the Railway Ministry urged its branches across the country to stay high alert for "the unpredictable".

The top priority, it said, was to ward off hidden risks from hazardous, combustible and explosive articles as their effects could be disastrous. The second concern was to prevent stampedes that might lead to mass injuries or deaths. Last was to beware of foul weather such as that which ravaged southern China early last year stranding huge numbers of people in railway stations and posing new risks.

"Safety is extraordinarily significant this year because the financial crisis has left many people jobless and with less cash. For a harmonious Spring Festival, it is essential to ensure all passengers, especially rural migrants and those on low incomes, can travel home safely with salaries and bonuses secure in their pockets," Chai says.

The railway authority has required all luggages to be checked thoroughly. To ease passenger numbers at stations, they are reminding travelers not to arrive too early. Arriving two hours ahead of the departure time is enough, they say.

Police force realignment

One quiet change Xinhua learned from Railway police was that high-speed trains had taken the back seat this year as police resources were transferred to standard and temporary trains to safeguard rural migrants, students and the low paid.

Since the launch of high-speed rail services in 2006, the safety of trains labeled with CRH (China Railway High-speed) and running at 200 to 350 km per hour have been cause for concern. Although CRH trains share the same number of police officers with standard and temporary trains, resources have been purposely deployed in the latter.

Practice over the past three years showed that ordinary and temporary trains, known as "Puke" and "Linke", which charged less, had more stops and ran the slowest were more vulnerable to thefts and crimes.

When the economy was solid and brisk, rural migrants usually went home for a short break. But this time, with little hope of returning immediately, many migrants are actually moving their "homes" and traveling with more valuables. Their luggage includes buckets, electric fans, rice cookers, TVs and clothes hangers.

"In tough times, the realignment of police forces is necessary and can benefit the most vulnerable," Chai says. The Beijing Bureau alone has deployed 300 extra police to strengthen standard and temporary services.

As export-oriented companies on the eastern coast have gone broke or shut down temporarily, rural migrants have been returning home since early November.

This has to some extent reduced current numbers of passengers, but the weakening economy had also complicated this year's transport trends.

As the Spring Festival approaches, students, rural migrants, tourists and those going home to visit their families can become aggravated by the stress of travel, Railway Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping has said.

After the Lunar New Year, uncertainty will arise, he explained, as new job opportunities are yet to be found.

Ticket scalping

On Wednesday afternoon, Wang Yongping joined a forum named "Qiangguo" or "Rejuvenating Nation" on the state-run People.com website where critics described ticket scalping as a "malicious tumor" and challenged him over the rumored collusion between railway staff and ticket scalpers.

Wang reiterated that the Railway Ministry would deal harshly with malpractice in ticket sales.

"Ticket scalpers come in all shapes, some with big chain-like operations, others are individuals. But whatever form they take, illegal profit is the motivation. Railway police will not only get on scalpers on the street, but also the ringleaders behind the scenes," he said.

Sources with the Railroad Police say a nationwide campaign, dubbed "Blue Shield" was launched last December to tackle ticket counterfeiting and scalping. Police have gathered mug shots and information on serial offenders and set up a database for reference at railway stations.

Guangzhou Railway Police early this month cracked a counterfeiting ring and seized 196 finished and almost 60,000 semi-processed tickets.

In Beijing Railway and Beijing West Railway Stations, about 200police were deployed from neighboring Shijiazhuang and Tianjin. "Offenders are unfamiliar with their faces, so the out-of-town police can stay undercover," Chai says.

To encourage the public to offer tips of malpractice, Beijing railway authority guarantee to keep their identities confidential and offer rewards, but also to secure their privilege in using the tickets obtained.

"As passengers who disclose to us the source of their overcharged tickets were prohibited from using the ticket in the past, our rewards seemed too small compared to the time and energy they spent obtaining a new ticket. This year, our principle is not only to be grateful, but also not to put them through extra trouble," Chai says.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2009)