BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's transportation industry continued to decline in March, however, the contraction narrowed from a month ago, an industry index showed.

The China Transportation Services Index (CTSI) stood at 121.2 points last month, down 28.5 percent year on year, according to the China Academy of Transportation Sciences.

The decrease was 12.6 percentage points lower than that recorded in February.

The index incorporated the transport volume of passengers and cargo of various transportation means including railway, highway, waterway and civil aviation.

With 2010 as the base year and 100 points as the base points, the CTSI includes passenger transport and cargo transport as two sub-indexes.

The index for passenger transport plunged by 66.4 percent year on year last month, while that for cargo transport dropped by 8.6 percent, shrinking by 17.4 percentage points and 8.5 percentage points from a previous month, respectively.