Satu Juta Penumpang Terperangkap di Gaungzhou

China's transport and energy systems have been caught in a perfect winter storm, with hundreds of thousands of people stranded during the peak travel season after train delays caused by heavy snow and power failures.

The power crisis, the worst in China for many years, has been caused by an acute shortage of the supply of coal, the country's staple fuel. Brownouts have affected about half of China's 31 provinces and regions.

The problem has been amplified by unseasonally large snowfalls in northern and central China, but the root cause is Beijing's attempt to reimpose and tighten price controls on numerous commodities, such as coal and oil.

Beijing is using old-fashioned price controls in an effort to stop high food inflation- which has pushed the consumer price index to an 11-year high- from spreading to the rest of the economy.

Power company spokesmen insist the brownouts are the result solely of coal shortages, but executives admit privately the industry may have exacerbated the situation to drive home to Beijing the unfairness of price controls.

The price of power remains largely fixed by Beijing, while the coal market has become increasingly deregulated in recent years, creating tensions between the two industries.

Global coal prices have surged in recent months, adding to the pressure for the rises to be passed on in China. Power industry margins have also been cut by higher freight costs.

"The shutdown of power stations by the generators is not force majeure [the canceling of contracts due to a major unforeseen event]. This is price majeure," said a China-based energy executive.

The Chinese media estimated that 150,000 travellers were stuck on Monday at the main rail station in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, with hundreds of thousands more expected in coming days.

Every lunar new year millions of migrant workers labouring at factories in the country's southern industrial heartland stream through the station -- and also the nearby provincial bus station -- during the peak "spring rush" travel period.

About 2,500 police have been deployed at the station to maintain order. The Guangzhou Railway Group also announced that it was suspending new ticket sales through February 6 -- new year's eve on the lunar calendar -- to help clear the backlog, potentially stranding hundreds of thousands of more workers far from home over the week-long holiday.

The company estimates that it will be up to 5 days before the Beijing to Guangzhou rail line is operating at normal capacity.

Beijing has dictated a series of measures to alleviate the growing crisis, including ordering coal companies to delay price rises negotiated in the new year and to deliver the fuel immediately to power stations.

Li Chaolin, a Beijing-based energy expert, said the coal shortage had also been caused by the closures of scores of small mines on safety grounds. "But I understand the supply situation is getting better now because Beijing has paid so much attention to the issue," he said. "Coal mines have been encouraged to increase their production, and transportation has been boosted."