China's railways to embrace continuous post-holiday travel rush

Special Report: Spring Festival Special 2009

Passengers wait for security check at

the entrance of the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China,

Jan. 31, 2009. The peak of return passenger transportation occured here at

the end of the Spring Festival holidays.(Chinese media/Fan

Jiashan)

BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Chinese media) -- The number of China's

railway passengers continued to rise as millions of travelers were on their way

back from family reunions on the last day of the Spring Festival holiday, Chinese media

learnt from the The Ministry of Railways (MOR) on Saturday.

Railways carried 4.83 million passengers on Friday,

up 384,000 from a year ago, 595,000 more than Thursday, according to the MOR

office in charge of Spring Festival transport.

To cope with the travel peak, 722 temporary trains

were put into operation on Friday, with 349 serving for mid-and-long distance

service.

The office said more railway travelers were expected

based on the current calculation of ticket selling.

The ministry pledged to arrange more trains to the

transportation hubs including Chengdu, Hefei, Wuhan, Nanchang and Hunan.

In the first 20 days of the 40-day festival rush

period starting from Jan. 11, 87.93 million trips were made on the country's

railways. That was 4.40 million daily on average, up 15.6 percent from the same

period last year.

Besides, 248 million travelers hit the road during

Jan 25-31, up 5.6 percent from the same period last year, the Ministry of

Transport (MOT) said on Saturday.

However, heavy fog on Saturday forced flights and

expressways to close in east and central China, delaying the return of thousands

of people at the end of the weeklong break.

Light fog would continue to haunt most parts of the

south China, and would reduce the visibility to less than 1,000 meters in some

regions, and even to less than 200 meters in some areas, said the National

Meteorological Center (NMC) on Saturday.

MOT has kept updating the weather and traffic

information to the public, increased ticket services and extended working hours

to avoid passengers being stranded.

China raised the transport capacity of routes

destined for the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, where

millions of migrant rural workers were employed, according to the MOT.

A record 73,000 road passenger lines have been put

into use in the country's rural areas as the road infrastructure construction

improved in the vast rural areas.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year,

is the most important traditional festival in China. It falls on Jan. 26 this

year.

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Passengers walk out of the Beijing

Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 31, 2009. The peak of

return passenger transportation occured here at the end of the Spring

Festival holidays. (Chinese media/Fan Jiashan)
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