100,000 passengers stranded at Chinese train station

[MARC Rider]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/02/at-least-100000-chinese-new-year-travellers-stuck-at-railway-station

What's the closest thing to this in Amtrak history?

I do remember Washington Union Station being shut down once in the early 2000s to northbound trains during the evening rush hour due to a windstorm that knocked down the catenary, but the crowd couldn't have been more than a few thousand.

 

[fairviewroad]

Hitting the roads isn't always a good option in China, either:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3263440/Thousands-motorists-stranded-Beijing-motorway-incredible-50-lane-traffic-jam-week-long-national-holiday-wraps-up.html

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Haha! This is normal in China! In China, it's extremely foolhardy to attempt travel around Chinese New Year, but the trains run empty on Chinese New Year!

BTW, SRO is also normal on regular Chinese YZ coaches, and that does include long-distance trains.

 

[andrewlhe]

Apparently, it's Guangzhou Railway (Group) Cooperation's own fault this time. They try to make all trains from that area to originate at Guangzhou, but are ill-prepared for large number of passengers due to delays caused by weather. If they made part of the schedules to originate at nearby cities like Dongguan, Shaoguan, and Zhaoqing, there shouldn't be a problem like this. Anyway, in the past two days, they managed to get the situation under control when they received additional equipment and priority over tracks, but by now there is still around 30,000 people at that station, which is not big at all by Chinese standard.

The station normally looks like this...

https://www.flickr.com/gp/138022528@N08/J1Y721

 

[andrewlhe]

Haha! This is normal in China! In China, it's extremely foolhardy to attempt travel around Chinese New Year, but the trains run empty on Chinese New Year!

BTW, SRO is also normal on regular Chinese YZ coaches, and that does include long-distance trains.

It's not that hard. LD routes will likely to be running with 150 people on board one YZ car in one direction. However, on the reverse direction, it's easy to get a whole car for yourself. On corridors, peak normally occurs during other national holidays.Anyway, I used to go out a lot during Chinese New Year. It's the best time to see all kinds of rare consists and old equipments running those additional schedules. This year, someone took this photo of ND5 (GE C36-7) leading passenger cars (which CR do every year since 1980s). Too bad this may be the last year. When these legendary engines first entered service, dozens of steams were still around. When they eventually retire, all but few main lines have been electrified.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/138022528@N08/8H701Q

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

They could base all the equipment in Guangzhou and just run hub-and-spoke but with that kinds of traffic load it wouldn't really make a dent.

 

[andrewlhe]

They could base all the equipment in Guangzhou and just run hub-and-spoke but with that kinds of traffic load it wouldn't really make a dent.

First problem is at least two thirds of their equipment is not Guangzhou-based. Another problem is many trains are turned back almost immediately due to the small size of that station, making it very awful when inbound schedules arrive late. Also, I don't see any advantage of running hub-and-spoke in China. One train can carry almost 2000 people without overloading, and running hub-and-spoke is an easy way to get tens of thousands of people together in a short time.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Maybe they should just expand Guangzhou and base more equipment from there. It's a bottleneck because all the trains from Shenzhen and Kowloon have to pass through the area anyway. Then again, running hub-and-spoke would cause a train jam in Guangzhou. I prefer the way Beijing does it with the multiple trains stations and some north-south trains bypassing via Tianjin.

 

[andrewlhe]

Guangzhou station is so small, and that's the end of everything. It's expansion project has started but won't finish until 2019.

Guangzhou East is somewhat larger, but large portion of it is used for Guangzhou-Shenzhen intercity trains, and Guangzhou-Hong Kong trains. It's also bypassed by freight traffic.

Guangzhou South is larger but is high speed-only.

Generally speaking, most eastbound trains and some northbound ones originate at Guangzhou East.

Guangzhou handles some northbound and most westbound ones.

They are also trying to expand Guangzhou North, which is a rather small one, and they plan to move a few schedules over there. Currently there is no subway connection to that station, which limits its functionality.

Beijing has a much more sophisticated system. Beijing, Beijing West, Beijing South, and Beijing North, are all larger than their Guangzhou counterparts. It also handles much more freight traffic. They are also planning to expand Fengtai Station and handle some more high speed traffic.

Guangzhou has many other city development and social problems. I've been there twice, and I definitely don't want to live there.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Agreed on Guangzhou! I would never live there either! Shenzhen is bad too. I personally prefer Northern China.

Beijing North is actually pretty small, though bigger than Beijing East.

 

[andrewlhe]

Beijing North is still larger than Guangzhou North, which only has 4 platforms. Beijing East has negligible influence in Beijing area, just like Guangzhou West. Recently they started to run Beijing-Yanjiao commuting trains from Beijing East, before that, most people don't know the existence of such station.

Beijing is too crowded and expensive to live. Other than this, I'm fine with Beijing.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Oh yeah, China boards by platform rather than by track.