MCLC: railway naming rights

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: railway naming rights
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Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (7/18/14):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/18/all-aboard-the-officially-re
named-grand-rivers-and-mountains-train/

All Aboard the (Officially Renamed) Grand Rivers and Mountains Train
By AMY QIN 

China’s high-speed rail network is a source of great national pride, with
more than 60,000 miles of dedicated track, as of the end of 2013 — more
than in any other country in the world.

Now, commercial sponsors are being given the chance to share in the
network’s prestige, as local railroad bureaus have begun to sell naming
rights for its trains, part of the country’s continued push to
commercialize its state-controlled railroad sector.

The once uniformly named fleet of Hexie Hao (Harmony) bullet trains in
China is now undergoing a commercial rechristening, according to the
Oriental Morning Post, a Shanghai-based newspaper.

Passengers traveling by rail from Fuzhou to Longyan in southern Fujian
Province are likely to find themselves boarding the China Unicom Train,
after one of the big telecom operators in China, while travelers
journeying through Xiamen may find themselves aboard the Luziyao Train,
named after a food retailer whose products include pickled fish and an
orange gelatin dessert.

Local governments have also leaped at the opportunity as a way to promote
tourism with names such as the Hengshui Lake Train and the Grand Rivers
and Mountains Zhangjiakou Train, according to the Oriental Morning Post.

The move to commercialize comes more than a year after the once-powerful
Ministry of Railways was dissolved and turned into the state-owned China
Railway Corporation. One consequence of the shift, a person in the
industry told the Oriental Morning Post, is that train operators are now
responsible for their own profits and losses — thus the selling of naming
rights.

And with one-year sponsorships of the trains going for up to 12 million
renminbi, about $2 million, according to the newspaper, train operators
stand to make a hefty sum.

While rail travel has become increasingly popular in recent years, the
high-speed rail system has encountered problems. In 2011, the safety of
the trains was called into question after the collision of two high-speed
trains near the city of Wenzhou, which killed 40 and injured 191. The
railway sector has also been riven with corruption. Last year, the former
minister of railways, Liu Zhijun, was given a suspended death sentence for
abuse of powers and taking 64.6 million renminbi, about $10.5 million, in
bribes.