For many Chinese who want to nab railway tickets home for the annual Spring Festival migration, the government's promise of having a better system by 2012 is just a distant hope.

Starting Friday, the first day to book tickets for the travel rush expected to last from January 11 to February 28, long queues appeared at ticket booths in almost every major railway hub.

A man looks at an electronic schedule board at Beijing West Railway Station, January 1, 2009. [Asianewsphoto]

In Wuhan, college students were first hit by the rush, as many schools' winter break starts from January 10 to 17.

As more than 70 percent of the one million students residing there were expected to go home by train, local railway authorities have set up ticket agents on campus, opened more ticket booths for students at stations and offered special trains for students.

But many still found it difficult to get tickets, especially to Urumqi, Qingdao, Jinan, Harbin, Zhanjiang and Nanning. At the Wuchang Railway Station alone, more than 60,000 tickets were sold on Friday.

In Shanghai, police and security officers were put 24-hour on guard to maintain order and prevent accidents. They gave each passenger a number and assigned them to different waiting lines.

At the Beijing West Railway Station, 15 temporary ticket booths have been opened. To keep the lines at no more than 20 people as required by the Railway Ministry, Beijing railway authority set up 410 ticket booths at the main Beijing Railway Station and the Beijing West Railway Station. Tickets will be sold around the clock.

Deputy General Manager of the Guangzhou Railway Group Cao Jianguo asked passengers to "be patient" and "try again" with the booking telephone hot line 96020088 in Guangdong.

Nine stations in the southern province have been networked this year with the telephone hotline, which means passengers can pick up or cancel reserved tickets much more easily by showing identification.

At Guangzhou railway stations, the Guangzhou Command College of Armed Police was mobilized at seven ticket booths. They were on duty during last year's Spring Festival rush, which was aggravated by unusual snowstorms.

The Railway Ministry expects 188 million people to travel during the coming travel rush, up 8 percent from last year, with daily traffic expected to hit 4.7 million people.