Opinion: Public rail price hearing a good start

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 ◆ Opinion: Public rail price hearing a good start

A public hearing was held on Saturday to discuss the Railway Ministry's proposed price hike of passenger train tickets during the peak traffic period from January 28 to March 8 for the upcoming Spring Festival (on February 12 this year), which is the most important festival for Chinese family gatherings.

It is great procedural progress. It signifies the public will have more say in the price setting of the State-monopolized sector. Its price setting procedure will have to be a more transparent process, subject to the supervision of the public.

In the past two years, the ministry raised the price of passenger train tickets by 20-30 per cent in peak times around the Spring Festival. The price hikes did not go through public hearings and incurred outrage from the public.

Last year, a lawyer filed a suit against the ministry for this reason.

The 1998 Price Law states price-setting plans of commodities in the public-interest and State-monopolized sectors should be subject to public hearings before they are submitted to higher-level authorities for approval.

A document explaining the Price Law, however, was not made public until late last year. According to the document released by the pricing authority, the State Development Planning Commission, four sectors -- power, railways, aviation and telecommunications -- must hold public hearings for any price exchange.

Any price flotation without a public hearing will be deemed invalid.

Experts believed the lawyer would not have lost the suit if the document had gone into effect earlier.

However, his action is believed to have accelerated the reform on pricing, which aims to make the procedure more democratic and transparent.

In the past, the central government has repeatedly called on governmental departments to seriously listen to the opinions of the public when they draft policies. Without a legally guaranteed procedure, however, many departments just go through the motions.

In this way, they seem not to fear the possibility of any negative impact on their image, because there lacks an open channel for the public to question and challenge their policies.

Now public hearings expose the railway authority to direct examinations and inquiries from the public.

That experience will certainly have an impact on the old mindset of the railway authority, forcing it to be more conscious of the importance of establishing close ties with the people.

In this sense, the meaning of Saturday's public hearing has gone beyond the economic field. It means the public has the right to know, and can use that right in the real sense.

That is why Saturday's public hearing has been widely praised, although, at the hearing, the ministry failed to offer sound arguments to defend its price hikes.

The ministry said the hike has been designed to branch passenger overflows during the peak times. It is not, the ministry claimed, for the increase in the department's revenues.

China has the tradition that family members reunite in the Spring Festival. Therefore, millions of people rush back to their homes during that time every year.

Planes are too expensive for most people. Buses are not convenient for long-distance travel. Passenger trains, with relatively low prices, high speed and safety, have, therefore, become the top choice of year-end travellers.

Passenger overflow has brought serious problems. It is not rare that twice the number of people designed for the trains will be crowded in carriages.

Sometimes one has to spend an hour struggling through the passage to wait for the toilet. In extreme cases, several people huddle together in the lavatory.

The railway ministry said, through price hikes, some people will be forced to stay where they are during the Spring Festival, or seek other means of transportation, thus easing the transportation squeeze.

Raising prices can drive away demand. However to branch passenger flows to use other transportation, the precondition is the price hike is high enough. Experts estimate that at least a 100 per cent hike will be needed to make the ministry's price-hike policy effective.

Thus the proposed 20-30 rise in prices will only line the ministry's pockets. It will not ease the crowded trains.

The public hearing is a good procedure. However, it should not become a mere formality. The ministry must adopt a fact-based attitude and offer testable reasoning.

Saturday's public hearing shows that it has a good start but it has a long way to go before it matures.(China Daily)