Tickets for Tibet new railway service in hot demand

Hard seat tickets for the newly-opened Lhasa-Xigaze railway service are as precious as oxygen, as an unexpectedly huge number of travelers opt for to the new means of transportation.

The 251-km railway, linking the regional capital and the second largest city of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, has carried more than 67,000 passengers since it opened on August 15, far more than expected, said Zhao Hailin, deputy head of Lhasa Railway Station.

There are two trains in each direction on the new line every day. It reduces the travel time from four hours by highway to around three hours.

"It's the peak season of tourism in Tibet now, and almost every train is fully packed. We had to arrange more than 20 extra services to cope," said Zhao.

Hard seat tickets sell for 40.5 yuan (6.60 US dollars) each, are most popular and often run out. A hard sleeper costs 116.5 yuan (19 US dollars) and 175.5 yuan (28.60 US dollars) for soft.

"We have begun to put on more hard seat coaches," said Zhao.

Construction of the railway, an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest, started in 2010 and cost 13.28 billion yuan (2.16 billion US dollars).

The new railway brings the total length of operating railways in Tibet to 802 km.

Due to complicated geology, numerous bridges and tunnels and a hefty investment in environmental protection, the cost of the railway exceeded 50,000 yuan per meter on average, making it the most expensive in China's history.