VietNamNet Bridge – There were 36,287 out of 68,000 tickets for the Lunar New Year holiday sold via www.vetau.com.vn as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, according to Saigon Railway Company.

Saigon Railway Station is crowded as people rush there in the hope of getting tickets for the Tet holiday.

Of the tickets sold, 4,149 were paid on the spot, with 1,984 via banks, 70 online payments and the remainder at the Saigon Railway Station.

As Saigon Railway Company has allowed for online ticket bookings since on Tuesday, a number of customers successfully reserved tickets. However, there were times that customers could not access the accounts for ticket bookings.

The online sale service will run until Friday. Unsold tickets or tickets that are either unpaid or are reserved but are returned later will be transferred to the station for direct sale.

The station will sell tickets directly to customers including tickets of extra seats from next Thursday to Saturday.

Despite the fact that several passengers already booked tickets via the online service, large numbers of buyers still rushed to the station as observed by the Daily on Tuesday.

Black marketers were also seen doing business actively in front of the station’s gate. A lot of people failing to get tickets at the station had to buy black market tickets instead.

To minimize black market trading, Nguyen Van Thanh, head of the station, said ticket buyers are required to provide identity cards numbers and names for the busiest days nearing the Tet holiday. After getting on the train, passengers will have to show their tickets to staff members and they will not be allowed to continue the trip if their information is different from details on the tickets.

Saigon station advises customers not to buy tickets from the black market to avoid buying fake ones. The firm and local police jointly detected a case of trading a large volume of fake tickets for the Tet holiday last year.

Source: SGT