China's online train ticket system cracks under holiday pressure.

[randomness]

From Want China Times, a Taiwanese news site about China:

Launched in June 2011, the Chinese Ministry of Railways' online ticket-buying system is facing its first major challenge as the Chinese New Year holiday, the peak travel season in China, continues to pick up speed. A report from Chinese-language news portal Southeast Network has said that the system, which has been periodically crashing, was not given any stress tests prior to the busy season.

The report said the website was viewed 1.4 billion times on Monday, meaning that, on average, every person in the country logged on at least once. Users had a hard time accessing the site, however, due to the tremendous pressure put on the system by heavy traffic. Some experienced buyers tried to access the website many times or in multiple ways, but others had to depend on their luck.

Some media outlets in China used the click-through rate and number of tickets sold to calculate that a user had to try an average of 500 times to successfully make a ticket purchase. Buying a ticket successfully on the site, however, did not mean users would receive their purchase. Over the past 10 days, many users have complained that they have not been able to retrieve tickets at booths even after making payments online.

Color me shocked.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

was not given any stress tests

Brilliant. Especially since the system must have cost at least many tens of millions of dollars.

Systems integration and testing is the stuff you do that looks like it costs a boodle of money, and looks very much like you're spinning your wheels and accomplishing absolutely nothing except wasting taxpayer money (mostly because the only projects big enough to really, really need it are funded by taxpayers), but which if you don't do it, by golly, things blow up. A lot. -- Ask Mr. Protocol

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Especially since the system must have cost at least many tens of millions of dollars.

The article says, in part:

The ministry reportedly paid a total of 568.5 million yuan (US$90 million) to two online technology providers, ChinaNetCenter and Taiji Computer, to build the site.

Oh, and it adds:

Both ChinaNetCenter and Taiji Computer have said that they are not to blame.

"According to our tests, the system works well," ChinaNetCenter told the FJSEN. Taiji Computer, similarly, said, "We only take charge of the hardware and have no ideas about the breakdown and slowness." However, both admitted that the ministry plans to work with them in the future, and also to increase payments to the companies; both firms' shares have increased following the news.

Right, then.