英闻天下——569 Over-priced Meals on Trains Stir Controversy

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　　Reports say a package meal on the high-speed trains sell for about 45 yuan, roughly 7 dollars.

 

　　But what you get is only four slices of beef, an egg, a small, cold vegetable, and some rice.

 

　　Usually, a boxed meal like this will cost around 10 yuan.

 

　　Bloggers:

 

　　@ "You Ying Qian Yi":

 

　　China's high-speed trains can run faster than most trains in the world, yet their services lag far behind. As early as 2011, the Ministry¹ of Railways promised to provide passengers with meals costing less than 15 yuan. Apparently², the promise has not been kept.

 

　　@ Fan Zijun:

 

　　Whenever passengers ask for low-priced meals, they will be told the cheap ones are sold out, so people have no choice but to buy expensive ones. However, I don't believe the idea of only targeting huge profits is sustainable for the railways department.

 

　　@ Wei Zhimin:

 

　　One individual train is like a monopolistic market. The way to solve the problem of overpricing is to reinforce the supervision³ from the railways department. Furthermore, other government departments should also get involved and try to stop the illegal acts, or if necessary, even initiate⁴ an antimonopoly investigation⁵.

 

　　@ Ningbo girl:

 

　　I am confused by the fact that the ticket price of a high-speed train can be as expensive as a plane ticket, while the service on the train is much worse than that on the plane. I think all the high-speed trains should provide passengers with free lunches like the planes do.

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