China railway to manage 120 mln trips in golden week, up 20% from 2019

From railway, road transport to airlines, the Chinese transport sector is beefing up efforts to meet the record number of passenger flows during the coming May Day holidays golden week when the railway traffic will surge 20 percent from 2019 and traffic volume on highways will increase 77 percent from 2022, according to official data.

China’s railway department kicks off the holiday travel rush in advance on Thursday. The railway system across the country is expected to manage 120 million passenger trips during the eight-day period lasting though May 4, up 20 percent from 2019 to the highest level in history, China Railway said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday.

The railway department estimated the largest flow to occur on Saturday, the first day of the golden weak and expected to manage 19 million passenger trips on Saturday, up 10 percent from historical high.

As of 8 am on Thursday, a total of 69.08 million train tickets have been sold during the May Day holidays, according to China Railway. Specifically, routes from Beijing to Shanghai, from Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan, to Xi 'an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, from Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, to Shanghai will see large passenger flow.

To prepare for the large flow, the railway department has increased the capacity by adding 1,800 more trains during the golden week transportation period, up 21 percent from 2019.

Apart from railway transportation, a record number of vehicles are expected to hit the road during the five-day official holiday when the highway toll will be waived. The average daily traffic volume of expressways across the country is expected to hit as much as 54.3 million vehicles during the holidays, an increase of 77 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Transport said at a press conference on Thursday. The ministry estimated the traffic volume on the first day of the holiday may break a historical peak.

Chinese airlines are also beefing up efforts to increase capacity to meet the travel peak expected during the upcoming May Day holidays, per data provided by airlines and airports.

Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) said on Wednesday that it is expected to welcome 831,900 passenger trips, equal to more than 160,000 passenger trips each day. The daily passenger flow peak is expected to be on April 29 and May 3, the airport said.

Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to welcome more than 615,000 passenger trips and manage 4,131 planes during the travel rush.