Train tickets for Tet: Sold out as soon as they are sold out

Tickets to the Central region are sold out

Based on a survey, since October 1, although the railway industry has just opened ticket sales for Tet, many people have not been able to buy tickets. In particular, in the "hot spots" from Ho Chi Minh City to some central provinces and cities such as Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai, Da Nang, Hue, etc., train tickets for the peak days before Tet are very scarce. Many people are "eye-rolling" on the computer to find tickets but are disappointed because they cannot book seats on trains to the above areas.

A survey on the railway ticket sales website on the afternoon of October 3 showed that the route from Ho Chi Minh City to many provinces in the Central region from December 20 to 26 (ie from January 25 to 31, 2019) was not possible to book tickets. Most of the seats on the train compartments on these routes showed tickets sold, seats for longer journeys, seats not sold or seats for troubleshooting.

Since October 1, although the railway industry has just opened ticket sales for Tet, many people have not been able to buy tickets.

Tickets held for more than 72 hours

According to Mr. Do Quang Van, Director of Saigon Railway Transport Branch - Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company, as of 2:00 p.m. on October 3, the number of tickets successfully booked by passengers in the period of 10 days before Tet and 15 days after Tet (from January 25 to February 19, 2019) was 102,162 tickets but there were still more than 40,000 unpaid tickets. Of which, most of the unpaid seats were held since October 1, and as of the afternoon of October 3, the holding period had almost expired.

"There are still many unpaid tickets, so on October 4, a large number of tickets will be returned to the system for others to purchase," said Mr. Van.

Meanwhile, on the railway ticket sales website, some tickets are being held until October 10, although the maximum allowed holding time is only 72 hours. For example, on the SE8 train from Saigon to Hanoi on January 31, 2019 (December 26), on the afternoon of October 3, on many train cars, some seats displayed the content waiting for transaction with more than 7 days remaining, while cars from 8G to 11G showed the waiting time was less than 20 hours (because customers booked tickets from October 1).

On the first day of Tet train ticket sales, many passengers came to buy tickets at Saigon station.

Explaining this issue, a leader of Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company said that the seats showing extended holding times as above are all tickets for groups that have been booked in advance. These tickets have a holding time that lasts until October 10 and, like individual tickets, when the holding time expires, they will be automatically updated to the ticketing system for other passengers who need to book. In addition, due to the high demand for travel during Tet, the soft sleeper compartments with 4 beds on the first floor will be converted into 3 soft seats.

The transfer seats, on the ticketing system, are still displayed as a train car with names like "car 8G, 9G"... but in reality, the car number remains the same. In the train cars that are converted, the first floor (converted) will be locked and the system will only display the seat numbers of the 2 floors above. Therefore, there are seats on these 2 floors that are still displayed as "business seats not for sale", similar to some cars that are not converted to serve the railway industry's business activities and resolve incidents. However, Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company will base on the actual situation and travel needs at each time to be flexible in selling tickets at these seats, as well as adjusting long-distance to short-distance.