Short-distance trips surge on second day of China's May Day Holiday

China's transportation system continued to maintain high-level operation nationwide to handle the holiday passenger surges on Friday, as short-haul trips rose sharply on the second day of the May Day holiday.

China's railway system handled 23.119 million passenger trips nationwide on Thursday, setting a new record for single-day passenger volume for the annual May Day holiday. The total passenger flow is expected to decline on Friday, but the proportion of short-distance passenger trips have increased significantly.

Railway authorities have enhanced the capacity of passenger transportation on popular routes between regions. The Guangzhou Railway Bureau expected to handle 2.68 million passenger trips on Friday, a year-on-year increase of 9.9 percent. The railway system of the Yangtze River Delta expects to handle 4.18 million passenger trips on Friday.

The passenger flow on the Hangzhou-Taizhou high-speed railway, in east China’s Zhejiang Province, has increased by more than 60 percent compared with normal days.

"To cope with the peak passenger flow, the Shaoxing North Station plans to add 25 trains, 14 of which will operate on the Hangzhou-Taizhou High-speed Railway, mainly bound to Hangzhou, Shanghai and Wenling," said Wang Jinlan, ticket sales manager of the Shaoxing North Station.

Road trips had also surged, with national expressways expected to handle over 55 million passenger vehicle trips on Friday. In the day, road travels across the country have mainly been short-distance ones within a same province and tours to nearby attractions.

Transportation and power departments in various regions have taken measures to ensure the charging of new energy vehicles.

At the Shandong Wucheng Service Area along the Dezhou-Shangrao Expressway, support personnel from the local power department have carefully inspected the 71 charging piles at 19 charging stations in the area, to promptly eliminate possible safety hazards.

In efforts to reduce possible congestion caused by charging new energy vehicles, Zhejiang's transportation and power supply authorities have upgraded the charging facilities at the Tiantai Service Area of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Expressway, adding 20 fast-charging piles that can charge 40 NEVs at a same time.

At the Hengshui service area along the G45 Daqing-Guangzhou Expressway, in north China's Hebei Province, local transportation and power authorities have added mobile charging facilities, and used drones to guide car owners in real time to charge at the closest charging station in a timely manner, thereby improving charging efficiency.

The country's civil aviation system expects to handle a total of 2.16 million passenger trips on Friday.

As for water transportation, it is estimated that more than 2 million passenger trips will be made by water nationwide on Friday. The maritime authorities will conduct dynamic inspection and monitoring of long-distance passenger ships throughout the voyage to ensure the safety of water passenger transportation.

Short-distance trips surge on second day of China's May Day Holiday

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that the situation in Iran is "under total control" following violence linked to protests that spiked over the weekend.

Addressing foreign diplomats in Tehran, the foreign minister noted that armed terrorist groups had infiltrated the protests, attempting to divert them from their legitimate course. He claimed that evidence has been gathered showing Iranian security forces being shot at, with the aim of causing further casualties. He accused the United States and Israel of exploiting the unrest to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.

Araghchi further stated that the government is closely monitoring developments on the streets, emphasizing that "the situation has come under control." He also affirmed that internet services, curtailed during the unrest, would be restored after coordination with security agencies.

The government has engaged in dialogue with merchants and protest representatives and initiated reforms to address grievances related to price hikes and currency depreciation. Iran has taken a series of actions and measures to respond to the demands of peaceful demonstrators, the foreign minister said.

Earlier on Sunday, Araghchi said that clear evidence links recent riots and vandalism of public facilities in Iran to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. This came after former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned Mossad agents operating on Iran's streets in a social media post. The Iranian foreign minister asserted that police are being attacked by "terrorists" acting under the direction of Israeli operatives, whom Pompeo publicly acknowledged.

The protests initially erupted over a sharp depreciation of the rial and sweeping subsidy reforms. Iranian authorities have blamed the unrest on foreign-linked agents and U.S. sanctions.

Iranian foreign minister says situation "fully under control," accuses Israeli intelligence of stoking unrest