Comment on "Students say high-speed rails too costly" (China Daily, Dec 30)

I agree that the tickets for high-speed trains are too expensive for low-income people. Not only college students, but also migrant workers cannot afford to pay for such tickets.

Just as the report shows, a seat on a second-class G train (with speeds of up 350 kilometers an hour) between Shanghai and Nanjing is 146 yuan ($22.09), while it costs less than 100 yuan on is a D-class train. Since the distance between Shanghai and Nanjing is just more than 300 km, a person traveling on a D-class train may reach his/her destination a little later than the one taking a G train but can save about 50 yuan.

True, high-speed trains are very fast, comfortable and convenient. But for members of low-income groups, the cost of a ticket is still the top concern.

On short-distance routes, G-class trains lose the advantage of speed. Students get a discount of only 25 percent on high-speed train tickets compared with the 50 percent on other trains. Other members of low-income groups such as migrant workers cannot get any discount at all. So, why should students and migrant workers choose to travel on high-speed trains?

Expensive tickets create extra economic pressure on many people. Hence, the government should reconsider its mechanism for pricing tickets for the high-speed trains.

Sally, via e-mail

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(China Daily 01/06/2011 page9)