Student sues railway for 20 yuan

Shanghai Railway Transportation Court Monday rejected the lawsuit of a local graduate student who wanted to sue the Shanghai Railway Administration for 20 yuan ($3.21), which he argued was the amount he overpaid for a recent train ticket.

The lawsuit reflects a long-standing public gripe about train ticket pricing, specifically about how standing room tickets and tickets to sit in second class cost the same despite differences in comfort and service.

The 26-year-old student, Lei Chuang, believes that the railway authority overcharged him for the standing ticket he purchased online Thursday for a trip from Nanjing to Shanghai, according to a post on his personal microblog. Lei paid 95.5 yuan for his ticket, the same price as a seat in second class.

Lei argued that the railway charges 20 yuan too much for standing room tickets. He came up with the figure by looking at the difference in price between tickets for first and second class seats, which is also 20 yuan.

Lei was not discouraged Monday after the court rejected his lawsuit. "I will go to the court Tuesday to file the lawsuit again," he told the Global Times. "I will not give up until the court deals with my case."

The court refused to consider the lawsuit because the would-be defendant does not set ticket prices, said a court official surnamed Xu. "Lei should not have filed a lawsuit against the Shanghai Railway Administration because it is the national authorities that decide the price of tickets," Xu told the Global Times.

The court also rejected the lawsuit because it believes Lei must have known the difference in ticket prices when he made his reservation.

Lei, who is studying chemical engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has some experience using the court system to challenge government agencies. In August, he threatened to sue the Health Department of Zhejiang Province after a community health service center in Hangzhou refused to grant him a health certificate because he carried the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).

The central government had instituted a food safety law in February 2009 that allowed HBV carriers to obtain the health certificate, which is required to work in food-related jobs.

Lei decided to test the law by applying for the certificate, which the health service center eventually granted after he protested and threatened to file a lawsuit.

The court should not have refused to consider the lawsuit just because Lei sued the wrong government agency, said Wu Dong, a lawyer from M&A Law Firm. Customers have the right to sue if they are not satisfied with the service they bought.

Wu told the Global Times that the court should at least consider Lei's case for a hearing before rejecting it, a formality that would at least require the court to provide a reason for the rejection.

Currently, there are differences between various berths and seats and passengers can make a choice according to their financial circumstances, Wu said.

"The fact that standing tickets and seat tickets share the same price breaches the principal of fairness, so it is reasonable that passengers should pay less if they do not receive equivalent service," Wu said.