China railways carry record 6.54 mln passengers on May 1

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese railways carried a
record 6.54 million passengers on May 1, the first day of the three-day May Day
holiday, as the country boosted capacity with faster trains and more seats, the
Ministry of Railways said Sunday.

The number of passengers was 641,000 more than on the
same day last year, up 10.9 percent, thanks to a capacity boost since the
country launched a new railway schedule April 1 featuring faster trips and more
seats.

The ministry said an average 66.5 new passenger
trains were put into use every day on the new schedule, with an increase of
238,000 more seats every day.

The number of passengers on Friday has topped the
previous daily passenger record.

The ministry said 5 million of the total had made
medium- or short-distance trips, as people switched to shorter-distance trips to
cope with the shorter holiday.

Chinese workers had seven days off, instead of the
current three days, during the May Day holiday, before a new holiday system
kicked in last year.

Passenger flow surged to 5.73 million on April 30, a
day ahead of the May Day holiday running from Friday to Sunday, up 8.5 percent
from a year ago.