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according to china national radio, a media report said that mr. tong from shanghai bought a round-trip high-speed rail ticket from shanghai to changshu on september 16 and from changshu to shanghai on september 17 through the railway 12306 app. due to the impact of typhoon bebejia, the outbound train was suspended. when applying for a refund, mr. tong found that a refund fee of 4 yuan was charged for each return high-speed rail ticket from changshu to shanghai on september 17.

in response, the 12306 staff responded that the return ticket purchased by the passenger did not meet the "connecting ticket within 24 hours" regulations, so a refund fee would be charged. what are the relevant regulations for connecting tickets due to force majeure factors such as typhoons that cause train suspensions? can the refund rules include content for "round-trip tickets"?

mr. tong said in an interview that he bought g8282 high-speed train tickets from shanghai to changshu on september 16 for his family of three on september 2, and g3295 high-speed train tickets from changshu to shanghai on september 4 for the return trip on september 17. "on september 14, i received a text message from 12306 saying that the train from shanghai to changshu was cancelled due to the typhoon. i checked the official website of 12306 at that time, and it seemed that there were very few cancelled trains," he said.

so on the evening of september 14, mr. tong bought three more tickets for the d9562 train from shanghai to changshu on september 16. however, typhoon bebejia still caused the train to be temporarily suspended.

mr. tong told the reporter: "on the evening of september 15, i received another text message from 12306, and the other train i had booked on september 16 was also cancelled. basically, all high-speed trains in the yangtze river delta area were cancelled on september 16. i think it is very correct, because the typhoon is very dangerous, and shanghai has also issued an orange warning. i strongly support the cancellation."

12306 sent a text message notification to mr. tong (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)

the screenshot of the 12306 text message provided by mr. tong shows that if you have purchased a connecting ticket, please log in to the 12306 website (including the 12306 mobile terminal) before the connecting ticket departs and process a refund together with the g8282 and d9562 train tickets. no refund fee will be charged.

ticket purchase information for g8282 train (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)

ticket purchase information for d9562 train (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)

however, when he was applying for a refund on the 16th, mr. tong found that he was charged a refund fee of 12 yuan for three tickets when he was applying for a refund for the g3295 changshu to shanghai high-speed rail ticket on september 17.

ticket purchase information for g3295 train (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)

mr. tong said: "i cancelled my return train ticket on the morning of september 16 because of the typhoon. it was a round trip to the same place and the previous train was cancelled. it was normal for me to cancel the subsequent train because i didn't go there. of course, it was not the railway's fault. because the high-speed train was cancelled due to the typhoon, i cancelled my return ticket. i think it should be equal and no handling fee should be charged. the railway department still charged me a handling fee of 4 yuan per ticket according to the tiered ticket refund rules, and the total for three people was 12 yuan."

a 4 yuan handling fee was charged for refunding a single ticket (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)

afterwards, mr. tong called 12345 and 12306 to inquire about the refund fee. he said: "i called 12345 on september 16 to report the problem. on the last day of the mid-autumn festival, i called the 12306 customer service hotline again. they explained to me that because i took the high-speed train to changshu at around 1 pm and returned to shanghai from changshu at around 4 pm the next day, it was more than 24 hours, and the rules for free refunds for connecting tickets did not apply, so a handling fee would be charged. because the typhoon was force majeure, i hope they can reflect it to the higher authorities in the form of suggestions, and the management department can study this matter. there should be special regulations for this kind of force majeure. if it was my personal reason to cancel the train, it would be very reasonable to charge a refund fee. the previous service was not implemented, and i had to cancel it because i had no choice."

12306 official website's explanation of connecting tickets (official website screenshot)

what is a connecting ticket? wang lin, an instructor at the beijing railway customer service center, told china radio international that there are three criteria for determining whether a passenger has purchased a connecting ticket.

wang lin introduced: "passengers buy multiple tickets in sections that can be connected between the departure and destination. now many passengers buy several tickets, such as beijing to nanjing, nanjing to shanghai, or from shanghai to hangzhou. this is the first condition for buying tickets that can be connected. the second condition is that the arrival station of the first ticket and the departure station of the second ticket should be the same station, or the same city railway operating station, such as shanghai station and shanghai hongqiao station, which is called the same city railway operating station. the third condition is that the time interval between the arrival time of the first ticket and the departure time of the second ticket should not exceed 24 hours."

on september 1 this year, the 2024 version of the "railway passenger transport regulations of china state railway group co., ltd." was officially announced. the new regulations made 24 revisions to the 2023 version of the "national railway group passenger transport regulations", among which the concept of through-trip tickets was further improved, providing passengers with more ticket purchase options between the departure and destination of a single trip in the form of through-trip tickets. considering that according to the train operation rules, through-trip tickets can complete the transfer within 24 hours, the connection time is clearly defined as no more than 24 hours.

wang lin further introduced that the criteria for determining through-trip tickets mainly involve that when a train is suspended, passengers can apply for refunds for through-trip tickets under the conditions of the 2024 version of the "national railway group passenger regulations". wang lin said: "before the announcement of the train suspension information, if passengers bought through-trip tickets, no refund fee will be charged if they use the through-trip tickets together. simply put, if you bought a beijing south to nanjing south and nanjing south to shanghai hongqiao ticket, because there are force majeure issues from nanjing south to shanghai hongqiao, such as the typhoon some time ago, you can apply for a refund for the entire through-trip ticket before departing from nanjing south. if the interval with the latter ticket exceeds 24 hours, it becomes an independent ticket, a ticket for two segments, and is not a through-trip ticket as we recognize."

how to refund tickets when a train is suspended (screenshot from the official website)

wu zhenhua, deputy director of the development department of the china association of private technology entrepreneurs, believes that article 180 of the civil code of the people's republic of china clearly stipulates that if a civil obligation cannot be performed due to force majeure, no civil liability shall be borne. although the 24-hour rule is reasonable to a certain extent, it is not particularly humane and does not meet the expectations of ordinary people.

wu zhenhua said: "from the perspective of force majeure, although typhoons are now somewhat predictable with the improvement of technology, ordinary people cannot know where the railway department will stop the train. unforeseeable, unavoidable and insurmountable, it meets the conditions of force majeure. in this case, the full amount of the ticket should be refunded."

zhao jingwu, associate professor at the school of law of the beijing university of aeronautics and astronautics, suggested that the 24-hour time limit for connecting ticket refunds could be adjusted more finely based on actual conditions. he said: "in the face of unforeseen and unavoidable situations such as typhoons and earthquakes, the refund rules for connecting tickets should be adjusted in accordance with actual conditions. for example, the '24 hours' stipulated in the national railway group passenger regulations for connecting tickets can be extended to '24 hours as a principle, 48 hours for special circumstances'. if the distance between the departure station, transfer station, and destination station is short, the 24-hour standard can continue to be used. however, if the distance between these three stations is far, there are fewer trains, and it is difficult to buy tickets, it is recommended to consider extending the 24 hours to within 48 hours."