CCTV News(Reporter Wang Jiazhu, He Chuan) On February 1, the 40-day 2018 Spring Festival transportation kicked off. The reporter interviewed and found that compared with the past, the railway Spring Festival transportation entering a new era is undergoing historic changes. The railway Spring Festival transportation is not only for passengers to "walk", but also for passengers to "walk well". It is especially worth mentioning that with the continuous investment in technology and equipment, the railway Spring Festival transportation is entering the era of intelligent services.

　　Buying tickets: Big data accurate analysis long queues into history

On the first day of the Spring Festival, Chengdu East Out-of-App Plaza was crowded, but there was no large-scale queuing phenomenon. (He Chuan/Photo)

　　Buying tickets is the first part of the journey for passengers to embark on the Spring Festival. In the past, long queues and difficult tickets were the most troublesome for passengers. Now with the popularity of online ticket purchasing and the introduction of Internet technologies such as big data technology, ticket purchasing is no longer difficult.

　　During the Spring Festival this year, China Railway Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Mr. Tie") expanded the technical capacity of the 12306 website, increasing the daily ticket sales capacity from 10 million to 15 million. At the same time, it optimized the verification code strategy. Last year, 70% did not need to fill in the verification code. This year, this proportion has increased to 85%. According to data provided by Mr. Tie to reporters, the proportion of online ticket purchases will reach 80% this year, an increase of 10 percentage points over last year. The phenomenon of long queues for ticket purchases has been greatly alleviated.

　　It is worth mentioning that big data technology has also been applied to this year’s Spring Festival travel. This year, China Railway launched an innovative ticket sales service for passengers in poverty-stricken areas, and so far, more than 14 million tickets have been sold. The so-called "accurate ticket sales" is to conduct big data analytics on the travel situation of tourists in poverty-stricken areas in recent years, understand travel needs, and then accurately arrange transportation capacity to reserve tickets for migrant workers in poverty-stricken areas who return later. Taking Yunnan as an example, Kunming Bureau Company has carried out this service for 88 poverty-stricken counties and 4.47 million poverty-stricken people in Yunnan.

　　In addition, the railway department also launched the "Internet +" travel service this year. After the ticket purchase is completed, passengers can receive WeChat notifications through the mobile phone number bound to 12306, and can receive notifications such as ticket purchase, change, and refund in WeChat; they can also use WeChat QR codes to inquire about remaining ticket information.

　　Inbound: facial recognition 3 seconds inbound efficiency increased by 10 times

　　Wuhan Station is the first railway station in the country to trial face-brushing inbound stations. In January 2017, Wuhan Station took the lead in trying two face-brushing inbound end point devices. At that time, the facial recognition rate was only 80%. After a year, the facial recognition rate of the device has increased to 95%, and the number of devices equipped nationwide has expanded to 1,000.

Passengers entering the station using the "face brush" system at Xi’an North Railway Station. (Photo courtesy of Xi’an North Railway Station)

　　On the first day of the Spring Festival, the reporter saw at Xi’an North Railway Station that automatic identity verification equipment was installed at the entrance of the first and second floors, with a total of 28 self-service channels, an increase of 700% year-on-year. During the operation of passenger identity verification, the video camera automatically completes face recognition, and the identity verification of the inbound ticket can be completed in 3 seconds. The situation of long queues at the inbound entrance during peak periods for manual ticket inspection no longer exists. According to the relevant person in charge of Xi’an North Railway Station, theoretically, the "face-brushing" equipment can achieve more than 30,000 passengers entering the station after running for 1 hour, which is 10 times the efficiency of manual verification channel.

　　On the same day, the reporter in Chengdu, Jinan and other railway stations found that the end point of the brush face into the station has been put into use on a large scale, China Railway Jinan Bureau Group Co., Ltd. this year’s Spring Festival travel has increased by nearly 100 intelligent gates.

　　In addition, the reporter also learned that this year, Xi’an North Railway Station has also invested in a self-developed key passenger transfer station service management system for the first time. The system can print the transfer station voucher in as little as 2 seconds by scanning the ID card of the person at the transfer station and the ticket information of the person being picked up. After the transfer station is completed, scan the QR code to leave the station. The introduction of this system has improved the service efficiency of manual handwriting before by about ten times.

　　In-app: robot intelligent service 360-degree panoramic navigation

　　The intelligent service of the railway Spring Festival transportation is not only in the process of ticket purchase and station entry, but also a series of intelligent service systems have appeared in the train in-app.

　　The self-service inquiry machine at Xi’an North Railway Station introduced the 360-degree panoramic guide mobile guidance system this year. This system uses the 360-degree panoramic guide function from the passenger’s perspective to achieve accurate point-to-point guidance of the real scene in the indoor area, enabling passengers to quickly reach the destination area.

　　In addition to this "cool" guidance system, next to some ticket gates in Xi’an North Railway Station, the reporter also saw a number of intelligent inquiry robots, which can automatically speech recognition of the questions raised by passengers, and can query the content covering ticket purchase, boarding, late information, etc. The reporter combed and found that in Yinchuan and Dalian railway stations, such robots with voice interaction function have also been set up.

　　The high-speed rail ordering that once attracted attention in 2017 has also been upgraded during the Spring Festival this year. According to Mr. Tie, in order to compress the timeliness, the high-speed rail ordering has been compressed from 2 hours to 1 hour at the latest, and it has further enriched the variety of meals and provided specialty reservations.

Chengdu Dong in-app, a passenger is experiencing the WeChat client side of Chengtie Public Security. (He Chuan/Photo)

　　The reporter also learned from the Chengdu Railway Bureau that the Chongqing passenger section relies on Internet technology to launch a series of "micro-service" projects. After passengers follow the "Chengdu-Chongqing High-speed Railway" WeChat official account, they can enjoy services such as "micro-ordering", "micro-consultation", "micro-reservation", and "micro-help". The WeChat official account has set up two "micro customer service" 24-hour shifts.

　　The "high-speed rail + car-sharing" service is another bright spot in this year’s Spring Festival travel period. During this year’s Spring Festival travel period, Hohhot East Railway Station, Nanjing South Railway Station, Jinan Railway Station, Lanzhou Railway Station and other places have launched time-sharing rental cars to solve the "last mile" problem on the Spring Festival travel road.