China's railways handle 121m passenger trips during Spring Festival holiday

China's railway networks managed a total of 121 million passenger trips during this year's nine-day Spring Festival public holiday, which ended on Monday, showcasing strong holiday travel demand and steady economic vitality, the national railway operator China State Railway Group said on Tuesday.

From Feb 15 to Monday, the national railway network transported 121 million passenger trips, an 11.5 percent increase year-on-year. Meanwhile, the country's railway freight volume reached 85.38 million metric tons, marking a 0.5 percent rise compared with the same period of last year's Spring Festival public holiday.

Passenger flows remained high as family reunions, tourism and return journeys overlapped throughout the holiday. Railways nationwide handled an average of 13.41 million passenger trips per day, the company said.

Notably, on Monday, the last day of the public holiday, the railway system recorded 18.73 million passenger journeys, setting a new historical high for single-day passenger volume during the annual Spring Festival travel season, widely known as chunyun.

Railway authorities said transport organization and passenger services were strengthened to ensure safe, orderly, and efficient travel while supporting smooth logistics operations during the holiday.

The 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, widely regarded as the world's largest annual human migration, remains a key test of China's transport capacity and operational management each year.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn