China’s Railway Transport Performs Strongly in Q1, Supporting High-Quality Economic Development

BEIJING, April 20 — In the first quarter of this year, China’s railway passenger transport maintained a high level while freight transport showed a sound growth momentum, effectively supporting the safe, orderly and comfortable travel of the people and the high-quality development of the economy and society.

Xinhua News Agency reports that in terms of passenger transport, railway departments have continuously optimized the supply of passenger transport products and strengthened the organization and supervision of transport during peak passenger flow periods such as New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival Travel Rush. In the first quarter, China’s railways handled a total of 1.133 billion passenger trips, a year-on-year increase of 5.5% and a record high for the same period; passenger turnover reached 414.683 billion passenger-kilometers, up 3.2% year on year.

In March alone, 376 million passenger trips were completed, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%, while passenger turnover hit 130.582 billion passenger-kilometers, rising by 16.5% year on year. People’s Network notes that railway departments coordinated the capacity resources of high-speed and conventional railways, dynamically optimized train operation plans, and operated an average of 12,072 passenger trains per day, an increase of 7.1% year on year, to meet the diverse travel needs of passengers.

On the freight front, the first quarter saw China’s railways complete a total of 1.281 billion tons of freight delivery, a year-on-year increase of 2.2%, and freight turnover reached 907.198 billion ton-kilometers, up 5.1% year on year. In March, freight delivery stood at 460 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%, with freight turnover rising by 6.9% to 334.267 billion ton-kilometers.

From the perspective of category-based transport, People’s Daily reports that in the first quarter, China’s railways transported 681 million tons of coal, 256 million tons of containers and 15.28 million tons of grain, increasing by 1.7%, 10.7% and 11.3% year on year respectively, effectively guaranteeing the supply of key materials for national economic operation.

In terms of fixed asset investment, China Economic Net states that the national railway fixed asset investment reached 137.9 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%. A number of key railway projects made positive progress, including the Xi’an-Shiyan High-Speed Railway and the Shandong section of the Xiong’an-Shangqiu High-Speed Railway, which have started joint commissioning and testing, laying a solid foundation for the full-year railway construction.

A relevant person in charge of the National Railway Administration said that the steady growth of railway transport and construction in the first quarter has effectively injected vitality into the national economy, playing an important role in expanding domestic demand and promoting industrial synergy.