China's railways handled 121 million passenger trips during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday, up 11.5 percent compared with last year, according to data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd on Tuesday.
The Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year, fell on Feb 17 this year, with the nine-day holiday break starting on Feb 15.
During the holiday period, passenger volumes remained high, as family reunions, returning migrant workers, and holiday tourism were overlapping. Daily averages reached 13.41 million passenger trips.
To meet the surging demand, an average of 12,380 passenger trains were operated daily, and up to 2,314 temporary passenger trains were added in a single day on popular routes and sections. On peak travel days before and after the holiday, over 1,000 nighttime high-speed trains ran daily on major routes.
"Passenger trips stayed above 15 million for four straight days. About 18.733 million passenger trips were handled on Monday, creating a new record for single-day passenger volume during Spring Festival travel rush," said Zhou Changfeng, deputy director of the Product Development Department at China Railway's Passenger Transport Center.
During the holiday, the national railway network handled 85.38 million tonnes of cargo, with average daily freight loading reaching 157,000 railcars, the data revealed.
China's railway passenger trips hit 121 mln during Spring Festival holiday
