Hanoi (VNA) - Most bus tickets in the central city of Da Nang forpeak days during the upcoming Tet (LunarNew Year), which begins on January 26, have been sold out. This has forced somepeople into trying alternative ways of getting home.
Nguyen Cu, a worker from Hoa Khanh Industrial Zone in Da Nang city’s Lien Chieudistrict, tried to find a ticket to Ha Tinh province on January 22 night, butall the tickets were sold.
The only available ticket was a seat on a night-bus on January 23 night.
Cu, like many other customers, decided to divide their route to travel on January22 night. This meant he had to buy two tickets from Da Nang to Thanh Hoa provinceand from there to his hometown in Ha Tinh.
“As long as I’ve got the ticket to go home I’m happy,” he said.
On other routes to northern cities and provinces such as Hanoi, Nam Dinh and ThaiBinh, there were only a few tickets for sleeping buses. But they would sell outsoon, a bus station official said.
In Da Nang train station, the usual Tet crowdswere nowhere to be seen as most customers buy tickets online. However, anofficial from the station said they only had hard-seat tickets left for peakdays.
A passenger who wished to remain anonymous said he was trying to get ticketsfor three adults and two children from Da Nang to Nghe An province, but failed.
However, he was offered a night train ticket with a sleeping berth for 580,000 VND(25.7 USD), equivalent to three seats with only seating. He had no choice butto buy three tickets.
“The price is quite high,” he said, “but we need a bed for the children tosleep on. We can sit on the other beds”.
Reports from the Da Nang Train Station showed that there were 1,100 tickets onhard-seats available from Da Nang to Hanoi.
Pham Ngoc Thanh, head of the ticket selling team, said the ticket stationswould open around the clock to serve passengers. The team will also provideticket delivery services.
On switching tickets in the bed carriage, Thanh said the team followed the VietnamRailways Corporation’s regulation, which allowed passengers to get a bed-berthticket for the cost of three hard-seat-berth tickets.
This would help tackle the high demand, he said. -VNA
VNA