On April 16th, today, 12306 started selling tickets for April 30th, the day before the May Day holiday. However, many netizens complained that the 12306 app was "selling out instantly" and "prepared for ten minutes, but tickets were gone in a second."
In response, according to domestic media reports, the Beijing Railway Customer Service Center stated that indeed, there are fewer tickets for through trains compared to the number of tickets for full journeys. Generally, full journey tickets are released first, and tickets for intermediate stations are released proportionally, resulting in fewer available tickets.
Staff mentioned that if full journey tickets are not sold out, the ratio will be readjusted within 24 hours before departure, and tickets will be released again. It's highly likely to get supplementary tickets if you place your order early.
Additionally, the China Railway Administration previously explained that during periods of tight transportation capacity, ticket quotas for long-distance trains will prioritize serving long-distance passengers traveling from the originating station to the destination station, maximizing the utilization of transportation resources.
Meanwhile, when there's sufficient capacity for long-distance tickets, the railway department will dynamically adjust ticket quotas based on demand, automatically redistributing some quotas to stations along the route to meet the needs of short-distance travelers.
It is reported that during this year's May Day holiday period, passenger travel will be concentrated from 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM on April 30th and from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM on May 1st, with the last day (May 5th) seeing a concentrated return of travelers.
As ticket sales start at different times for different stations, passengers should pay attention to the ticket sales schedule or make advance reservations to prepare for ticket purchases.
