According to the report of China Newsweek, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway announced the adjustment of high-speed railway fares ten months after the listing, and the scope of fare adjustment is mainly the high-speed railway with the speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour as well as the moving train group, which covers the scope including the second-class seat as well as the business seat. Floating fares are implemented for the whole line, which is basically similar to the floating mode of airplane fares.

The report pointed out that at present, the price of high-speed rail ticket of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail is maintained at three levels: 553 yuan, 993 yuan and 1,748 yuan. The lowest fare for the implementation of floating fares is 498 yuan, and the highest business fare is 1998 yuan. The floating range is between ten and twenty percent of the lowest price. On the same day that the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railroad announced the fare adjustment, the Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railroad also announced to follow suit.

But there are also different voices on the Internet. The railroad itself is a basic measure of social public welfare, the commercial fluctuation of the fare has broken the original intention of public welfare, and also lost the advantage of China's high-speed rail. However, from the author's point of view, this is a normal commercialization step, but also in line with today's social and economic development. The reasons are as follows:

Split listing has the pricing right of tickets;

Public welfare behavior is conditional;

Inflation as well as on prices;

Split listing has the pricing right of tickets

Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail ten months ago, successfully spun off with China Railway Corporation to list and to become a listed company. Listed companies need to consider the nature of their profitability as well as their accountability to shareholders. Under the influence of the epidemic in the first half of this year, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railroad lost a lot of passengers, and its revenue in the first three quarters was 34.87% lower than that of the previous year. The price adjustment behavior at this time and it is possible with the impact of the epidemic. The reduction of revenue will inevitably trigger the collapse of the valuation, adjust the fare is to realize as soon as possible to turn a loss into a profit.

But as a publicly traded company, it has the commercial nature of pursuing profits. And naturally, like any other commercial company, it has the right to set prices. As long as it complies with the law, there is no question of whether it is reasonable. However, it is worth mentioning that the Beijing-Shanghai discounted fares for economy class are also just over 500 yuan, whether the increase in high-speed rail fares will have an impact on passenger traffic needs to be seen later.

Public welfare behavior is conditional

Public welfare behavior is conditional, not all the railroads running on the need to meet the needs of social welfare. public welfare refers to the most ordinary people, high fares for them to accept the degree is not high, so generally they will not choose this type of transportation.

For example, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, when a large amount of land went out of harvest, Heshen traveled to provide relief. In order to prevent the rich group of people to control the grain, in the grain mixed with sand, but hungry people will still eat, for the rich group but avoided. So the grain was distributed to the victims. Of course this could not happen in contemporary society, but the reasoning is the same. It is never possible for high-speed railroads to satisfy the social public welfare transportation, as long as the high-speed railway fare is not equal to the general train fare, this part of the population is rarely to buy high-speed railway tickets, and the groups who have the conditions are naturally willing to pay for this money in order to enjoy better and faster transportation services.

Social welfare behavior is compounded by the interests of the vast majority of the group, the ordinary train can maintain the same fare for decades, but also because of this reason, for different groups of people to introduce different services, in itself, is a kind of business behavior applicable to contemporary society.

Inflation and rising prices

Data shows that the RMB has depreciated by about 7.8% annually under the double pressure of inflation and currency depreciation, and the end result of this evolution has been an increase in prices every year. In the case of rising prices for personnel, electrical services and ancillary facilities, the increase in fares is also reasonable.

In fact, the high-speed rail fare fluctuation is the product of a long time in the making, in 2015 began to pilot, want to through the fare market-oriented reform, to enhance the profit level for the high-speed rail industry. There are also relevant documents at the national level to support the implementation of the floating fare mechanism for the high-speed rail system. But the high-speed rail system has also been carefully considering how to use the pricing power, also afraid of screwing up will lose the market, which also makes the high-speed rail ticket price increase will not be too big, or in a state of steady progress.

In the prospectus of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail, about the company's business development plan mentioned that it will ? Improve the efficiency of the company's operation and management? Utilize big data means to improve the efficiency assessment and adjustment mechanism of Beijing-Shanghai HSR train operation. Adhere to the market orientation, and study differentiated fare strategies and revenue management programs for frequent travelers, low and peak seasons, specific time periods, and different pre-sale periods.

But comprehensively speaking, the nature of people's livelihood as well as the social nature of railroad transportation will not change, although the listed high-speed rail company can set prices independently and realize real-time price adjustments, which has stronger commercial attributes, but it still can't be detached from the management and supervision of the Railway Corporation, and can't be adjusted arbitrarily purely from the point of view of efficiency and profit, once the price touches the level that is acceptable to the traveling passengers, the price of the railroad can be adjusted arbitrarily. The price touched the highest point of the travel passengers can accept, will also cause public opinion questioning, the regulator re-intervention is inevitable.