(Yicai) May 12 -- Shares of Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway rose after China's most profitable high-speed rail operator increased the published ticket prices for its main high-speed and electric multiple unit trains by 20 percent.

Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway [SHA: 601816] closed 3.5 percent higher at CNY5.05 (74 US cents) a share today. The broader Shanghai stock market fell 0.3 percent. 

Published fares for high-speed and EMU trains running on the Beijing-Shanghai and Hefei-Bengbu routes will jump by 20 percent, Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway announced late yesterday.

Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway will implement varying degrees of floating discounts based on the published fares between stations on the two routes, taking into account season, date, time period, travel speed, seat class, and other factors to decide the actual price, its actual controller China State Railway Group announced on the same day. The new mechanism will kick in on May 26, it added.

The main purpose of the increase in published fares is to expand the floating range of the execution prices, better implement a market-oriented ticket price floating mechanism with both increases and decreases, effectively adjust the match between transportation capacity and demand through a price lever, and promote passenger flow balance, China State Railway pointed out.

The move can enable limited capacity resources to serve more passengers and allow some travelers who have relatively lower requirements for train schedules and durations to enjoy more discounts, China State Railway added.

Since December 2020, Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway no longer adheres to a fixed and unchanging fare system but has adopted a relatively flexible floating price mechanism. Following, China State Railway initiated floating pricing systems on multiple routes, which typically pass through regions that are economically developed and have a high population density and a strong per capita consumption capacity, such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.

Besides the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed railway route, Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway majority-owned subsidiaries also operate four other passenger routes, including the Hefei-Bengbu route.

Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway's net profit rose 6 percent to CNY3.1 billion (USD456 million) in the first quarter from a year ago, while its revenue rose 3.3 percent to CNY10.6 billion (USD1.6 million), according to its latest financial report. Its net profit topped CNY13.2 billion last year on record-high revenue of CNY43.1 billion.

However, Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway faces multiple competitive pressures, with factors such as fluctuations in business and migrant worker travel demands, the popularization of new energy vehicles, and the impact of low-cost flights diverting passenger traffic from the railway, according to its annual earnings report.

Editor: Martin Kadiev