Train tickets in short supply (3)

"I heard it's easier to get a ticket booking on the computer, but I don't know how to use the computer," he said. "Luckily, I live near the railway station, so I can keep coming here to try and finally I got one."

"It has always been very difficult to buy train tickets in recent years, not only for migrant workers, but also for all other groups such as white-collar workers," said Liu Xiao, a researcher in Beijing's Anbound Consultancy.

"The root cause is the gap between supply and demand of train travel services," Liu said. "So we cannot blame the online booking for causing some migrant workers difficulty buying tickets."

Despite the great development of the railway network, China's railway capacity still cannot meet the surging demand during the peak traffic season, due to billions of trips being made within a very short period of time, an official of the Ministry of Railways told Xinhua.

"In the long run, balanced economic development among different regions can help reduce the need for immigration and can ultimately ease competition for buying train tickets during the Spring Festival period," said Liu.