Rail tickets soon can be bought on smartphones

THE Ministry of Railways announced yesterday that it plans to launch a new service allowing the public to purchase tickets via smartphones by the end of the month.

The service marks the nation's railway authority's latest move to make ticket purchasing more convenient since it opened online ticket-purchasing platform www.12306.cn late last year.

Passengers will be able to book and pay for tickets with smartphones on the iOS or Android systems, a statement on the ministry's website said.

During a trial period, passengers in Shanghai can make reservations for tickets on certain dates during the upcoming eight-day period covering the National Day holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival that will start on September 30.

The ministry estimates 75.4 million trips will be made via train from September 27 to October 7 - 6.86 million trips each day.

The trial period is to prevent system failures on the ticketing platform when many users log on at the same time. Earlier this year, users complained about the system crashing due to overwhelming demand ahead of the Spring Festival.

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