Multiple departments jointly cultivate service brands of intermodal passenger transport

Recently, the Ministry of Transport, the National Railway Administration, the Civil Aviation Administration, the State Post Bureau, and China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. Jointly issued the Circular on Cultivating Service Brands of Intermodal Passenger Transport (hereinafter referred to as the Circular) to organize the cultivation of service brands of intermodal passenger transport across the country. Focusing on connectivity of facilities, data, ticketing, and services, it will promote “one-ticket purchase, one payment, and one certificate (code) for passage” to better meet people’s ever-growing needs for better transport services.

The Circular emphasizes the need to further leverage the role of enterprises as the main actors, establish a batch of service brands of intermodal passenger transport across the country that are characterized by outstanding infrastructure capabilities, comprehensive network coverage, efficient resource integration, standardized operations, and smooth institutional mechanisms, cultivate a number of leading backbone enterprises, form a number of typical experiences and practices, and actively promote the development of intermodal passenger transport.

The key areas for accelerating the cultivation of service brands of intermodal passenger transport focus on seven aspects.

The first is the “one ticket system” for passenger transport. Priority will be given to supporting the realization of “one-ticket purchase, one payment, and one certificate (code) for passage” through the implementation of interconnected ticketing systems, open sharing of ticket information, optimization of ticket product systems, adjustments to ticket sales systems, and innovations in transport organization models.

The second is the integration of hub connections for seamless intermodal transport services. China will strengthen the sharing of functional space and equipment utilization at passenger transport hubs, encourage the participation of road passenger transport enterprises in land-side transport services at civil aviation airports, rationally set up directional signage and indicators at hubs, guide passengers to the city terminal through offering services such as luggage check-in and dedicated shuttle connections, and improve services at railway stations in locations without railway, including ticket refunds, changes, and fast-line shuttle connections.

The third is the interconnection and sharing of intermodal transport information. China will accelerate the establishment of data-sharing mechanisms across railways, highways, waterways, and civil aviation to enable the sharing of data between different modes of transport, and encourage railway, highway, waterway, and civil aviation transport enterprises to explore market-based mechanisms, such as equity cooperation, data trading, and resource exchange, to open their intermodal travel data to third-party enterprises under certain conditions.

The fourth is to promote exclusive services for intermodal passenger transport. China will innovate intermodal passenger transport ticket sales models, offer preferential and exclusive services for passengers transferring between non-adjacent transportation hubs, and create conditions to provide intermodal transport services for specific groups, such as the elderly and persons with disabilities.

The fifth is to improve intermodal transport services for abnormal delays. China will explore the establishment of a carrier responsibility allocation mechanism for abnormal intermodal transport and improve the relevant passenger rights protection clauses. China will encourage and support, under the premise of agreement among intermodal carriers, that if the intermodal transport’s earlier part carrier is responsible for causing the failure of the later part, the carrier of the later part should cooperate to provide free changes, cancellations, and diversion services at intermediate points.

The sixth is to optimize services for cross-mode security check process. China will accelerate the optimization of security check process for passenger transfers from civil aviation to railways and urban rail transit, and expand the coverage of security check process optimization between railways and urban rail transit.

The seventh is to strengthen services for convenient luggage transportation. China will provide exclusive baggage services for intermodal passengers to ensure that the baggage is transported throughout the entire journey and arrives at the destination simultaneously with them, encourage civil aviation ground service agents, logistics enterprises, and courier services to innovate baggage transport and tracking technologies, and offer “door-to-door” baggage transport and delivery services.

In the next steps, the Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with relevant departments and units, will focus on the cultivation and promotion of service brands of intermodal passenger transport and effectively enhance the quality and level of intermodal transport services to better meet the growing travel needs of the people.