Hundreds of people bought train tickets for Tet Giap Thin 2024 on the first day of sale

Although it officially opened at 8am, Saigon Railway Station was bustling early. Hundreds of people rushed to get tickets, line up, and wait to buy tickets.

According to the reporter, there were more people coming to buy train tickets for Tet than last year. At the ticket sales area, when the sale started, there were hundreds of people waiting their turn to buy.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoi (65 years old, from Quang Ngai) said: “I arrived at the station at nearly 6 am to get a queue number, fill in the information and wait to buy tickets to go home. This morning, there were quite a lot of people coming to buy tickets, so it was not until 9 am that my turn came. This year, I booked 6 round-trip tickets including 2 sleeper beds and 1 extra seat to go back to my hometown in Quang Ngai with the ticket price of 8,605,000 VND”.

Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Director of Saigon Railway Transport Branch, said: "This morning, Saigon Railway Transport Branch opened its doors at 6am for passengers to get their queue numbers. On the upper floor of the ticket purchasing area, we arranged nearly 400 seats for passengers, and also arranged 8 official doors and 1 backup door to serve Tet ticket sales."

This year, to speed up the ticket purchase process, Saigon Station has also prepared forms for passengers to fill in their information before going to the ticket counter, helping to reduce the transaction time between staff and passengers, and at the same time avoid errors in the transaction process, filling in personal information. According to statistics, the transaction time for each passenger is from 3 to 5 minutes.

According to the leader of the Saigon Railway Transport Branch, as of 9:00 a.m., there were nearly 300 passengers present at the station to buy tickets. The connection and ticketing system were stable, and ticket sales were running smoothly. This year, the number of passengers coming to the station to buy tickets was similar to last year. In addition, many customers also booked Tet tickets through the online ticketing system, reducing the pressure on staff on the first day of ticket sales.

Mr. Thai Van Truyen, General Director of Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company, said that on peak days, when passenger demand increases, the company will open for sale extra seats with hard seat cars having a maximum of 10 seats, other types of cars having a maximum of 7 seats.

Compared to last year, the price of train tickets for the Lunar New Year 2024 at peak times increased by 1 - 4%, depending on the seat and train type; for off-peak times, the price decreased by 1 - 8%. In particular, the highest ticket price is 2,950,000 VND/ticket for the longest sleeper (Saigon - Hanoi) and the lowest is 1,900,000 VND/ticket for the longest route.