China must boost transport capacity for Spring Festival rush: official

A passenger sits on a bullet train heading directly for Guangzhou East Railway Station in south China's Guangdong Province from Hangzhou West Railway Station in Hangzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 10, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior Chinese official said Friday efforts should be made to "fully tap the transport potential" and increase the supply of transport capacity ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush.

Li Chunlin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a meeting that all-out efforts should be made to do a good job of meeting the needs of the Spring Festival travel rush.

The Spring Festival, China's biggest traditional festival, will fall on Feb. 10, while the Spring Festival travel rush, usually a period of high transportation demand as people return home for family reunions, will run from Jan. 26 to March 5.

China is expected to witness a record number of railway and civil aviation passenger trips during the travel rush, according to official forecasts.

The railway network is expected to handle 480 million passenger trips during the travel rush, up 37.9 percent year on year, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

Over 80 million passenger trips are likely to be handled by China's civil aviation sector during this year's travel rush, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.