Hopefully, China's rail service will improve accordingly, striking a balance between efficiency and profitability. Chinese people's growing willingness (and ability) to afford a high-speed train journey is not only about speed, but also quality service that comes along with it. As far as the dispute over the deliberate withholding of menu is concerned, the elephant in the room is the information asymmetry and insufficient awareness of service culture, not the extra money that passengers have had to pay.

Better traveling experience does come with a price, but passengers also have the right to choose and demand what is on the list. In fact, higher operating costs do not justify some train attendants' refusal to serve the 15-yuan meal because nearly five years ago the railway authorities already proposed the targeted on-board food supply, on the basis of real-time attendance, to lower the costs.

Since the 15-yuan deal is so popular that it was immediately snapped up by passengers on the Nanjing-Shanghai high-speed train, an acceptable response to the doubts would be to disclose how many boxes were ordered in the first place and explain the "unexpected" shortage later.

As a major transport provider, high-speed rail operators are obliged to abide by the market-oriented rules and take notice of the increasing importance of the supply side of the economy. It is common sense that diversifying food supply, rather than repeatedly touting expensive stuff, will generate the biggest gain.

Of course, offering meals that most customers can afford does not mean serving inferior quality food to feed the latent power-money exchange between food suppliers and rail companies. A substantial reform of the railway service is not easy, but it will be too late to implement it if passengers start politely turning down all deals offered on board.

The author is a writer with China Daily. cuishoufeng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/30/2016 page5)