China's rail network sets new Spring Festival travel records

China's railway network set multiple records during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which ended on Friday, with passenger trips hitting a record 538 million, China State Railway Group, the national railway operator, said on Saturday.

Passenger trips rose 4.8 percent year-on-year, while national railways transported 424 million metric tons of cargo, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier, both setting new records for the same travel rush period.

Rail capacity also reached new highs during the holiday travel season. Railways nationwide operated an average of 12,861 passenger train services a day, with a single-day peak of 14,037 trips, while overall transport capacity increased 8.3 percent year-on-year, according to the company.

The railway operator attributed the strong performance to expanded network capacity, including newly opened lines in 2025 such as the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang High-Speed Railway, Baotou-Yinchuan High-Speed Railway and Xi'an-Yan'an High-Speed Railway, as well as newly operational Fuxing bullet trains.

It said transport resources, including railway lines, stations, locomotives and rolling stock, were better coordinated, while train schedules were optimized to maximize capacity.

The 12306 online ticketing system was also upgraded and expanded to ensure stable operations during the travel rush. On Feb 9, 23.115 million tickets were sold in a single day, setting a new Spring Festival travel rush record.