All high-speed trains operating in the Yangtze River Delta region will stop issuing paper tickets by the end of December, China Railway Shanghai Company said on Monday.
In July, the high-speed trains from Shanghai to Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, became the first route to use only digital tickets. By the end of October, more than 18.76 million digital tickets were sold.
Hangzhou East Railway Station, Hefei South Railway Station and other 45 stations in the delta region will start selling digital tickets from Thursday, China Railway said.
The digital tickets mean that passengers will no longer be required to line up and collect paper tickets, China Railway said. Meanwhile, passengers won't have to worry about losing their tickets after they become digitized.
When passengers make purchases at ticket windows or vending machines, they will only receive a receipt with ticket information, which cannot be used as a ticket.
Passengers will only have to scan their ID cards, or permanent residency cards for foreigners, at turnstiles to board trains. For those with ID papers which can’t be scanned, a manual ticket channel will be opened.
