Factbox: Expanding railway network makes China's Spring Festival travel easier

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese people's trips during the Spring Festival are getting increasingly easier thanks to the country's expanding railway network.

The following are some of the highlights of the country's railway sector, which saw remarkable changes in the past decade, a period featuring the fastest growth and safest operation.

From 2012 to 2022, China's railway expanded from 98,000 km to 155,000 km, in which high-speed railway rose from 9,000 km to 42,000 km, a world record length, according to the National Railway Administration.

During this period, more than 130 counties across the country had gained access to railways.

By the end of last year, 81.6 percent of China's counties had access to railways, and high-speed trains reached 94.9 percent of cities with a population of more than 500,000.

China's railway passenger transport turnover, cargo delivery volume, freight transport turnover and transport density all rank first in the world.

China's railway cargo delivery volume reached 3.9 billion tonnes in 2022, up 4.7 percent year on year.

China also has the world's largest online railway ticketing system, with more than 720 million registered users.