Railway ticket scalpers too ‘big’ to stop  

鐵路員工：大“黃牛”可從內部拿票 背景非常硬

。“大佬”級別的黃牛，一般都是雇專門的人從窗口、網絡、售票點三管齊下買票，手里的神器也是層出不窮。這種人一般都有著很強大的社會關系，“他們有的人甚至跟我們內部的人關系很好，然后和代售點合作，在出票之前從內部先把票出給他們，我只能告訴你這些了。” [查看全文]

(ECNS) -- Some railway ticket scalpers are so powerful that they get access to tickets before they are even released to the public, the China Economic Weekly reports, citing a railway employee.

China has adopted a real-name train ticket system and online booking system to deal with scalpers, but they are still getting access with the aid of computers.

A informant going by the name Chen Xue is one of the scalpers. "The real-name system has no impact on us," Chen said.

Scalpers have developed a "circle" in which they share information about new policies, develop countermeasures and sell booking software, according to Chen.

"They are masters at developing plug-in software and upgrade their service packs aperiodically," Chen said.

Chen bought a plug-in which can book tickets in milliseconds. "As long as you input passengers' personal information in advance, the software can help book tickets for a whole carriage in a few minutes."

"Technically, refreshing ticket information in milliseconds can be achieved, but it's illegal," said a development engineer at 360, an Internet company that has also launched plug-ins to help users book tickets online.

A railway worker said scalpers like Chen are at the lower end in the circle. "Those at higher levels generally hire people to book tickets on a large scale, but some can even get them from railway insiders."

Most of the "big" scalpers have strong backgrounds, and even if they are caught, police can't do anything, the worker added.

Most of the top scalpers have been taken to police stations, said Chen, but they only receive oral warnings and fines of tens of thousands of yuan at most. "A 'good' scalper earns hundreds of thousands of yuan during the Spring Festival rush, so the fine is not a problem for us," Chen added.

Ticket scarcity during the Spring Festival rush has been an issue for years in China. Lian Weiliang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, estimated there will be 3.623 billion trips across the country during the Spring Festival travel peak.

Hu Yadong, deputy general manager of China Railway Corp, said the severe situation will ease, but the time hasn't come yet.

China's current railway lines exceed 100 thousand kilometers and 2,000 trains were purchased last year. "Building new railways and purchasing trains is a means to alleviate the rush," Hu added.