China's railways mileage tops 100,000 km

A train moves on Xiashen Railway, or Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway, south China's Guangdong Province, Aug. 11, 2013. The 502-kilometer-long railway, which links Xiamen City in southeast China's Fujian Province and Shenzhen City in south China's Guangdong Province, was finished on Aug. 10, 2013. (Xinhua/Hao Tongqian)

China's railways network topped 100,000 km in total mileage on Saturday, as several new high-speed rail links started operations ahead of one of the busiest travel seasons next month.

The newly opened links include the Xiamen-Shenzhen railway, Xi'an-Baoji railway, Chongqing-Lichuan railway, and others in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and have a combined mileage of 2,000 km.

Of the 100,000 km of track, more than 10,000 km are highspeed, said Hu Yadong, vice general manager of the China Railway Corporation.

The expanded railways network increases passenger capacity during the 40-day spring travel peak, which starts on Jan. 16, by 7.9 percent, said Yang Chuantang, minister of transport.

Yang forecast that 257 million trips will be made on the railways during the period, as people go home to their families for Spring Festival on Jan. 31.

A total of 2,667 pairs of trains will be operating before the Spring Festival, an increase of 157 from last year.

Total trips during the period will break a new record by reaching 3.62 billion, including waterways, roads, railways, and air routes.

China's first railway was built in 1876 in Shanghai and first independent railway was constructed in 1881 in Tangshan in north China's Hebei Province. When new China was founded in 1949, there were less than 22,000 km of lines and but only half of that was serviceable.

According to the national railway network plan, highspeed rails will reach 19,000 km by 2015. By 2020, the total railway mileage will top 120,000 km.