# 铁路12306 — user reviews > 589 indexed App Store user reviews of 铁路12306 by 中国铁道科学研究院集团有限公司, rated 2.00/5 from 1,007 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/12306/id564818797/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/12306/id564818797.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 190 · 4★ 53 · 3★ 38 · 2★ 48 · 1★ 678 ## What do users think of 铁路12306? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 🚀 Easy to use - 📲 Works with foreign passports - 🇨🇳 Useful for local Chinese users **Cons** - 🐛 Buggy and unreliable - 🤖 Poor user experience for foreigners - 🔒 Difficult registration process - 💰 Overpriced tickets - 🕰️ Slow and unresponsive **Commonly reported bugs** - Registration page shows blank screen - Frequent crashes and freezes - Incorrect time display - Inability to search for trains **Most requested features** - Support for Apple Pay - 12-hour time format - Ability to remove linked phone number - English language support ## Newest reviews (19 of 589) ### 2/5 — 妻离子散型 *2026-07-19, version 5.9.6* 一家三口提前2周订票，结果被分散到不同车厢。妻离子散型的12306 ### 3/5 — Very bad design *2026-07-15, version 5.9.6* I forgot my userID and password and cannot login. I selected forget password and the system kept asking me to input a right userID which I don’t remember. ### 1/5 — 积分补登搞笑啊坑人 *2026-06-02, version 5.9.5* 积分补登搞笑啊坑人 ### 1/5 — 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡 *2026-05-31, version 5.9.5* 卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡卡❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌ ### 1/5 — Non functional *2026-05-30, version 5.9.5* App does not work and requires at least 5 days to create a login ### 1/5 — Foreigners experience *2026-05-17, version 5.9.5* If you are not from china then you are unable to register an account for the app unless you get a Chinese phone or a physical Chinese sim, rendering the app completely useless and unhelpful if you plan on travelling many places in china, the Chinese government need to fix this so that foreigners can get trains without having to book through 3rd party services. Disappointing ### 1/5 — Food ordering *2026-05-11, version 5.9.5* The options for food delivery try isn’t accessible on the English app. It was randomly available by entering the menu through live update, but can’t get into it on the app. ### 3/5 — 帮帮海外华人吧 *2026-05-02, version 5.9.5* 铁路大大能不能给海外华人加个功能啊 没有国内手机定不了票啊真的很麻烦 不想回国每次都要麻烦父母订票 谢谢谢谢谢谢谢谢 ### 1/5 — 什么破玩意儿中国人不能用 *2026-04-22, version 5.9.5* 只让用外国护照账户登录，搞什么鬼 ### 1/5 — terrible *2026-04-19, version 5.9.5* unable to purchase train tickets through this app. used trip dot com instead. ### 1/5 — Can’t even login *2026-04-15, version 5.9.5* Refuses to add my Chinese wife! My wife can’t download the Chinese version and she is a Chinese national ### 1/5 — Unusable if you don’t have Chinese phone number *2026-04-10, version 5.9.5* The only thing useful about this app for tourists is knowing the train schedule. You can’t book tickets (or do anything else) through this app without registering. You can’t register if you’re not using a Chinese phone number. No idea why they decided to have an English version if it’s not even functional. ### 1/5 — go freak yourself *2026-04-08, version 5.9.5* flunked up ### 1/5 — 非要刷脸 *2026-04-06* 刷脸还不成功😭 ### 1/5 — 积分不能退 *2026-03-28, version 5.9.5* 西九龙站临时身份证扫不进去，又花钱买的 积分兑了就不给退，哪怕是后面又说可以扫 那边的工作人员都很无奈说有时能扫有时不 ### 1/5 — Worst App *2026-03-24, version 5.9.5* It stucks all the time and does not support foreign phone number for verification. We cannot buy ticket without mainland phone numbers. ### 1/5 — 占用空间大 *2026-03-10, version 5.9.5* 垃圾app，占用空间大，没有清理缓存按钮。 ### 1/5 — 註冊密碼太難搞 *2026-02-23, version 5.9.5* 註冊密碼太難搞 ### 1/5 — 深圳機場延誤，原本改簽一次，但還是趕不上，請注意廣深購票只能改簽一次，後無法再改簽，也無法退票，（香港西九龍）到（福田）的注意！打12306去只會說規定就是這樣，完全沒有服務到 *2026-02-22, version 5.9.5* 非常不滿意的消費 ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — 一星都不想给 *2026-08-28, version 5.9.6* 太多验证关口，简直没有隐私 ### 1/5 — 辣鸡中的战斗机 *2026-08-16, version 5.9.6* 海外手机号不能注册，邮箱验证永远收不到，三锅外包程序员都比你们强 ### 1/5 — 强烈要求取消人脸收集，可用身份证NFC替代 *2026-08-16, version 5.9.6* 银行都可以用身份证NFC读取认证来取代人脸收集，12306为什么要违法收集个人生物信息？！ ### 1/5 — It does not work *2026-08-05, version 5.9.6* They don’t provide any help to recover your account ### 1/5 — A $3 App on a Multi-Million Dollar Government Budget *2026-07-16, version 5.9.6* For what should be a simple, lightweight ticketing tool, this app is incredibly chunky, bloated, and poorly optimized. The backend database is consistently slow and unresponsive at all times, which routinely renders the app virtually inoperable when you actually need to book a ticket. The entire system is incredibly resource-heavy, packed with unnecessary, untrimmed code that was clearly slapped together without any real consideration for performance. It is painfully obvious that this is the product of bureaucratic incompetence. It feels exactly like a project where millions in funding were appropriated, the contract was arbitrarily handed out, and the work was outsourced so many times that only three dollars were left for the actual developers. Instead of a streamlined management system, users are stuck with a heavy, badly made mess. A complete embarrassment for a national railway system. This is clearly nepotism at its finest. ### 1/5 — Unusable *2026-07-12, version 5.9.6* The app is completely useless to foreigners despite being in English. This App wouldn't let me create an account due to "repeated id information", which is not true at all. When i finally got it to go through randomly i never received an activation email and there is no way to resend it. Now my id is locked and i cannot create another account! ### 1/5 — Horrible 不好用 *2026-07-09, version 5.9.6* 注册时，填完信息，不断冒出错误信号，一会儿说电子邮件地址已存在，一会儿说ID 重复…好多次不成功，不更换到下一页……实在没办法，直接在12306官网尝试用手机号码查 忘记密码…收到到电子邮件连接更改密码…所提示的ID 是我第一次输入的……明明第一次注册成功了，但是app 仍然显示错误信息，不更新页面。 后来登录app 后， “我的” 页面是空白。 下载app 前我在 12306 官网搜高铁车票，连想要的城市名字都输不了……令人费解，这样的软件和网页 还能推广使用！ ### 1/5 — 🗑️ *2026-07-02, version 5.9.6* 🗑️ ### 1/5 — 乐色软件 *2026-06-16, version 5.9.5* 一坨 ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work *2026-06-12, version 5.9.5* Created account but then said password was wrong. Tried to use forgot password but that failed too. No email confirmation that account was even created. So stuck. Can’t use app. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Working now with foreign + passport *2026-06-06, version 5.9.5* Just used this in china to book several tickets with foreign phone number, foreign passport and international bank card(to avoid the 3% fee on Alipay). Worked great for all of these purchases! ### 5/5 — Working now for Foreign Passport *2025-11-24, version 5.9.5* So happy to be able to buy train tickets with foreign passport now. I had to first go to the Beijing main station after arriving in the Capital airport to purchase tickets in May and stay overnight. Now I can reduce my travel time to my home city significantly by purchasing train tickets in advance, thanks to this App. 👍 ### 5/5 — 本地人觉得好用就行 *2025-11-22, version 5.9.5* 不是所有app都得照顾到歪果仁 ### 5/5 — 使いやすい *2025-09-11* 英語にすれば、簡単に登録出来て、使いやすいですよ ### 5/5 — 国铁！ *2025-08-12, version 5.9.5* 国铁！ ### 5/5 — Easy to use, good UI, but… *2025-05-13, version 5.9.3* Easy and quick for booking train tickets. However it does require you to have a phone number registered in China. Then you can buy ticket with your passport and scan it at the train station to take the train. Or ask a friend to book for you. ### 5/5 — 只有一个要求：请加英文 *2025-03-31* 没有别的问题，app很方便！ ### 5/5 — 全国人都在用 *2025-03-27, version 5.9.3* 一个全国人都在用的app 没有卡顿 挺厉害的 ### 5/5 — Love the app *2025-03-14* So simple and convenient, the design is really nice. Sometimes it lags but it’s expected and it works smoothly otherwise. If you need to register you need to do it from the browser ### 5/5 — 用来用去还是这个好 *2025-03-04, version 5.9.3* 以前有个app经常卡，还抢不到票，这个好用多了。 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-05.*