Seven out of 18 railway bureaus under the administration of China Railway Corporation, the national railway operator, have begun the process of reform toward restructuring to a company system, The Paper reported.
The seven railway bureaus include Shenyang, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, Nanning, Kunming and the Qingzang Railway Bureau.
At least four directors of the railway bureau have changed their titles to “chairman,” and also added a new position of “general manager.”
According to guidelines for corporate reform issued by China Railway in September, these railway bureaus will be transformed into single-member limited liability companies, fully funded by China Railway.
One of the remarkable things I noted travelling by train overnight from Shenyang to Beijing in an air conditioned coach with sleeping berths was that there was another train running in the same direction but without air conditioning and sleeping berths. This fare for this alternative train should naturally be much lower.
It was interesting as the railway authorities took the trouble to provide such a service to Chinese who are those well off to travel overnight to Beijing.
People give state owned enterprises a lot of grief for not being profitable enough. But some services are essential, even though it’s not profitable