New Year travel chaos hits across the nation

January 24, 2017 - 08:00

Most of bus tickets in central Đà Nẵng City on peak days of the upcoming lunar New Year Festival, which begins on Friday, have been sold out. Thus, late birds are trying different ways of getting tickets to go home, which could be costly and time-wasting.

Passengers board a train in Thanh Hóa Province. About 1,100 train tickets on hard seats are available from Đà Nẵng to Hà Nội.— VNS Photo Đòan Tùng
Viet Nam News

HÀ NỘI — Most bus tickets in central Đà Nẵng City for peak days during the upcoming Tết (Lunar New Year), which begins on Friday, have been sold out. This has forced some people into trying alternative ways of getting home.

Nguyễn Cừ, a worker from Hoà Khánh Industrial Zone in Đà Nẵng City’s Liên Chiểu District tried to find a ticket to central Hà Tĩnh Province on Sunday night, but all the tickets were sold.

The only available ticket was a seat on a night-bus on Monday night.

Cừ, like many other customers, decided to divide their route to travel on Sunday night. This meant he had to buy two tickets from Đà Nẵng City to Thanh Hoá Province and from there to his hometown in Hà Tĩnh.

“As long as I’ve got the ticket to go home I’m happy,” he said.

On other routes to northern cities and provinces such as Hà Nội, Nam Định and Thái Bình, there were only a few tickets for sleeping buses. But they would sell out soon, a bus station official said.

In Đà Nẵng train station, the usual Tết crowds were nowhere to be seen as most customers buy tickets online. However, an official from the station said they only had hard-seat tickets left for peak days.

A passenger who wished to remain anonymous said he was trying to get tickets for three adults and two children from Đà Nẵng City to central Nghệ An Province, but failed.

However, he was offered a night train ticket with a sleeping berth for VNĐ580,000 (US$25.7), equivalent to three seats with only seating. He had no choice but to buy three tickets.

“The price is quite high,” he said, “but we need a bed for the children to sleep on. We can sit on the other beds”.

Reports from the Đà Nẵng Train Station showed that there were 1,100 tickets on hard-seats available from Đà Nẵng to Hà Nội.

Phạm Ngọc Thanh, head of the selling ticket team said the ticket stations would open around the clock to serve passengers. The team will also provide ticket delivery services.

On switching tickets in the bed carriage, Thanh said the team followed the Việt Nam Railways Corporation’s regulation, which allowed passengers to get a bed-berth ticket for the cost of three hard-seat-berth tickets.

This would help tackle the high demand, he said. — VNS

    

 

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