Opinion / Raymond Zhou
Small things count in management
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-14 06:53
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been open for a year now, but most
passengers climbing up to the "Roof of the World" have opted to sidestep
Xining, somewhat of a gateway to the plateau.
It is not because the capital of Qinghai Province does not have an
abundance of tourism resources to offer. The culprit is scarcity of
tickets from Xining to Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region.
Once you get off at Xining and spend a few days taking in such sceneries
as Ta'er Temple and Qinghai Lake, you'll probably end up stuck here.
During the summer season, there is a daily demand for 1,200-plus seats
originating from Xining, but only 700-some are available.
Don't even think about getting a seat on the other Lhasa-bound trains
that depart from other cities and pass through Xining. They are all
booked solid through the holiday season, which runs from June to October.
This has made the tourism bonanza elusive for Qinghai and also left a
typical Qinghai-Tibet travel plan disappointingly incomplete for tourists.
Granted, there are reasons why the current capacity of 3,480 tickets to
Tibet cannot be raised. Train cars used in the newly built section of the
railroad have to meet stringent specifications for high-altitude
operation, including pumping oxygen into air-tight cars. And unlike the
packed-like-sardine trains elsewhere in China, no over-booking is allowed
on this route.
While emphasis on passenger safety is commendable, the inflexibility
towards market fluctuation is puzzling. During off season, trains run at
only 50-60 percent of capacity.
A question arises: How come a railroad with such daunting engineering
difficulties, including stretching across 550 km of tundra, could be
successfully built, but adjusting the number of trains to better reflect
seasonal changes of the market appears to be so arduous?
I asked many railway authorities on my trip to Qinghai, but did not find
a satisfying answer. Instead, they gave me the look as if I didn't know
what I was talking about.
I often get this kind of perplexed look when I ask about annoyances in
urban management. For example, the Capital Airport has a public
announcement system so loud that it drowns out a cellphone conversation.
Could they tune it so that it's clearly audible but does not simulate
shouting? Does the system have only two volume levels - off and shrieking?
The same goes for the city's bus service. For a while, ticket sellers
were alerting passengers to the name of the next bus stop. I asked one of
them why they didn't use a recorder-speaker, and she replied that it
would be "noisy to the residents in nearby buildings".
I guess a lot of people shared my curiosity. Soon, the speaker was back
on. And now I can hear buses pulling in from my apartment 100 meters from
the street.
I know bus announcement systems can modulate their volumes because I've
seen buses in other cities with volumes just loud enough for the waiting
passengers. The problem seems to be that those departments run by
bureaucrats rarely pay attention to the small things in customer service.
Why should a train run with more cars in the busy season and fewer cars
in the off season? Why should a bus or airport speaker be easy on the
ear? These may not be life-or-death issues, but it is the job of
management to find them out and calibrate for the best possible result.
Xining could increase the frequency of trains to Lhasa, but that comes
after local government officials made multiple requests and possibly held
many coordination meetings. On most occasions, there must be mountains of
complaints from the public before action is taken. When will the
bureaucrat managers get proactive and resolve those minor troubles before
they grow into an avalanche?
Email: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/14/2007 page4)
Hot Talks
� Should Beida recruit more recommended students?
� Nude women and Peking Opera: pornography or art?
� War in Iraq lost?
� Costa Rica cut ties with Taiwan: Who's next?
� Will China follow USA "way of life"?
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Learn Chinese, Learn Mandarin online, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet
No comments:
Post a Comment