Railway passengers in China may have to travel on crowded trains
in this holiday season, as Chinese railways need more cars to cope
with the rush.
China needs an additional 9,730 railway cars to carry all the
passengers expected during this year's Spring Festival travel
season. However, there are only 4,500 more cars than usual
available, resulting in a shortfall of 5,000, according to a source
at the Ministry of Railways Saturday.
China has more than 70,000 kilometers of railway lines. In
normal times, the country's passenger trains offer 2.8 million
seats every day, by and large covering the demand. But when the
annual 40-day Spring Festival travel season comes around, the
country's daily passenger demand jumps to 3.5 million-4.3 million
persons every day.
China has about 37,000 railway passenger cars, only 4,500 of
which are reserved for emergency use, far fewer than the current
requirement of 9,730. Therefore, the Ministry of Railways has had
to suspend some short-distance services during the Spring Festival
season.
It is estimated that more than 5 million people, including
university students, migrant workers and people on home leave, will
return to their hometowns from Beijing, requiring some 600
passenger trains.
"The requirement has almost reached the city's maximum railway
transport capacity, and the Ministry has to transfer trains from
Shenyang and Harbin, two major northeast China cities, to relieve
the capital's railway transport strain," the source said.
The Ministry has suspended the operation of some goods trains on
certain lines, such as the one connecting Beijing and Guangzhou,
capital of south China's Guangdong Province.
China's commercial railway mileage accounts for merely 6 percent
of the world's total, but it carries 23 percent of the world's
railway passengers.
In 1993, China's railway system carried 20 million passengers
during the Spring Festival season, while the figure is expected to
soar to 130 million this year.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2004)