Reliance on Vending Machines
Causes Chinese Coin Shortage
By Richard Giedroyc - October 02, 2007
It was a great idea on the
surface. The Shanghai Railway Station and other metro stations
would save money by getting rid of the clerks who sell subway
passes, replacing them with automatic ticketing machines.
All riders had to do was vend
coins or bank notes at the automatic ticketing machines and
receive their subway or railway passes in return. The machines
accept both coins and bank notes.
The problem that was not anticipated
is that many more commuters vend paper bank notes into the
machines, expecting to receive their railway pass and coins
in change in return. In fact there have been so many people
using bank notes to purchase their riding passes that the
machines can't hold enough coins to feed this demand. In turn,
once the vending machines no longer can make change, the machines
simply shut down.
According to the Aug. 4 Shanghai
Daily newspaper, "The problem is creating large line-ups
at many ticket machines, greatly slowing passenger flow. "
The newspaper article did
not identify the bank, but it did indicate there was only
one bank in Shanghai from which the metro system gets its
coinage.
The Shanghai Daily article
blatantly said that bank has a "monopoly" on providing
the needed coinage, and that "the bank has consistently
refused" to increase the coinage supply the transportation
system now needs.
How severe is the coinage
shortage? A Shanghai Daily reporter said that on Aug. 3 all
six of the machines had stopped accepting notes at the Shanghai
Railway Station. At the People's Square Station half of the
six machines in one area had stopped accepting bank notes,
while only one of the three machines at Xujiahui Station along
Metro Line 1 were still accepting bank notes.
Yin Wei, a spokesman for the
metro, is quoted in the Aug. 4 Shanghai Daily newspaper as
saying, "The coin shortage most often affects busy stations
with a large number of out-of-town visitors. You don't expect
them to travel with a local public transport card. The shortage
is very common in the afternoon."Yin said the Metro staffers
at busy stations were told to ensure that at least one of
the machines could accept bank notes by moving all the coins
to a single machine.