As Tet draws near, millions of Vietnamese are packing to leave for their home villages, putting public and private transport under great pressure. (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - As Tet draws near, millions of Vietnameseare packing to leave for their home villages, putting public and privatetransport under great pressure.
Tickets have been said to have doubled, even tripled on busy routes. And therehave been the usual reports of ticket hoarding and black-marketing in bigcities such as Hanoi and HCM City.
Railway ticket sales for Tet began in mid-October last year when morethan 300,000 return tickets were made available. Sixty additional cars, theequivalent of 10,000 seats, have now been added to the country’s train fleet byVietnam’s major rail companies.
The Saigon Railway Transport Company, still has tickets available fortrains going North up until February 14. For the return route fromHanoi to the central and southern provinces, there are nearly 43,300tickets still available from February 19 to March 3 (first days of the lunar NewYear).
Do Quang Van, Director of the company, told Vietnam News that onaverage, the price of train tickets this Tet was about three percenthigher compared to last year, depending on the route and type of trains.
Buses - public, private and unauthoried - still remain one of the more popularmeans of transport during the holidays for their route flexibility.
HCM City’s transport department insists there are still a large number of bustickets available from established companies, even though, since last year,they have been permitted to sell them at 20-60 percent above normal pricesduring the holiday season.
However, a report from the southern city indicated that most tickets have beensold. What are still available throughout the nation are tickets fromunauthoried bus companies who ply their own routes and sell their own ticketsat even more inflated prices.
To justify the price increases on regular bus lines during the holiday season,transport companies said they often made losses on return routes. “Our busesoften have to return with almost no passengers. We have to make up for itsomehow,” said a representatives from a Hanoi based bus company.
Late travellers often resort to buying tickets on the black market at inflatedprices. These come in two categories - those issued by lesser-known or evenshady transport companies unregistered with transportauthorities, and those sold by hoarders.
HCM City’s Transport Department recommended that bus passengers buy tickets atthe Eastern Region and Western Region bus stations and call hotlines of the busstations to check for ticket availability.-VNA
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Many streets in Hanoi are regularly gridlocked in the run-up to Tet with people trapped in traffic unable to get any real time information about the jams.
The 23rd day of the last month of every lunar year is when the Kitchen Gods return to Heaven to report to the Jade Emperor what happened on earth during the year.
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As Tet draws near, millions of Vietnamese are packing to leave for their home villages, putting public and private transport under great pressure. (Source: VNA) 
