Suzhou Railway Station authorities have apologized for keeping passengers in an iron cage during their purchase of tickets at a train ticket sales office located in a traffic artery in the city of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The Modern Express newspaper reported the 30-meter long, 2-meter high and 0.5-meter wide cage has been dismantled, but the guardrail of over one meter high remained to prevent any disorder when people queue up at the ticket sale office.

An official of Suzhou Railway Station, Peng Wei, told the newspaper that the installation of an iron cage came from the worry that some ticket buyers may accidentally be pushed into busy traffic. But Peng also admitted the decision is not considerate to ticket buyers.

A ticket buyer surnamed Wu, who wants to get back to his hometown in Jiangxi Province during Spring Festival, described his feelings of waiting in the cage even worse than in jail. He said he couldn't even squat for a rest in the narrow space of the cage for the 10-hour long wait that started from 3 o'clock in the morning. He also complained that he couldn't leave to relieve himself since the narrow cage gave no way to return.

Wu is not the only one who is in a mood. Three or four other buyers cried "let me out" when waiting in the cage and finally gave up the purchase after they got out of the cage through gaps, according to a female buyer.

The hot ticket sale is largely due to the heavy pressure on Suzhou's railway transport system during the Spring Festival. Another local railway station official Li Huiming explained Suzhou, which has a migrant population of over six million, however, it is only capable of transporting one third of that population.