According to a report from Xinhua News Agency, the revised version of the Railway Passenger Transport Regulations of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. will officially take effect on June 1, 2026. This revision makes 28 amendments to the 2024 edition and results in a new version with five chapters and 116 articles. The core new provision is: for the first time, it clearly stipulates that passengers who “ride without a valid ticket and refuse to pay the fare” shall be restricted from purchasing tickets, and this will be included as a stipulated item in the railway passenger transport contract. The violations that trigger the restriction include: riding without a ticket; using altered or forged travel credentials; inconsistency between the ticket holder and the certificate; riding in a higher-class seat with a lower-class ticket; and using a discount ticket without meeting the discount conditions. After the involved passenger is informed of the violation and the follow-up measures on site, the restriction on ticket purchase will be triggered via automatic prompts on the railway 12306 system or manual prompts at the ticket counter. The passenger must pay the fare and a surcharge of 50% of the fare as required. After completing payment online or offline, the restriction can be automatically lifted.
Among the remaining 27 amendments in this revision, 19 solidify services that have already been running smoothly — such as electronic invoices for passenger transport, student discount tickets, and lost baggage services — into institutional rules. Another 8 amendments redefine concepts such as ticket purchaser, passenger, and connecting tickets, and optimize clauses related to passengers boarding or alighting at the wrong station and the calculation of baggage delivery time limits, in order to adapt to current actual passenger transport scenarios.