China's railway passenger trips hit 121 mln during Spring Festival holiday

BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's railways handled 121 million passenger trips during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday, up 11.5 percent compared with last year's holiday period, official data showed on Tuesday.

On Monday, the last day of the holiday, the country's railways witnessed 18.73 million passenger trips, setting a record high for single-day passenger trips during the Spring Festival travel rush, according to data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

To meet surging demand, an average of 12,380 passenger trains were operated daily, and up to 2,314 temporary passenger trains were added in a single day on popular routes and sections. On peak travel days before and after the holidays, over 1,000 nighttime high-speed trains ran daily on major corridors.

During the holiday, the national railway network handled 85.38 million tonnes of cargo, with average daily freight loading reaching 157,000 railcars, the data revealed.

The Spring Festival, which is also known as Chinese New Year, fell on Feb. 17 this year, and the official holiday lasted nine days from Feb. 15 to Feb. 23.