China's rail peak season for the lunar New Year is expected to
rise 8.3 percent from a year ago with a traffic flow of 178.6
million passengers from January 23 to March 2, the Ministry of
Railways said today.
The 40-day railway peak period is the world's biggest population
mobilization and the number of people traveling for the Spring
Festival is almost equivalent to the population of Brazil.
The Spring Festival is the most important holiday for Chinese
and falls on February 7 this year. Many migrant workers get home
for family gatherings only once a year during the Spring Festival,
the People's Daily said on its Website today.
Big crowds are expected in major transport hubs in big cities
such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai in the first 15 days of the
peak because of swarms of tourists and home-bound flows of migrant
workers and students, the report said.
In the next 25 days, passenger flow will mainly be dense in
cities like Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanchang, Hefei and Fuyang
in southwest and central China as migrants head back for work after
the holidays.
The Ministry of Railways said it will arrange 311 pairs of extra
trains.
China's railways transport more than three million people on
average every day, and the number climbs to 4.5 million during the
Spring Festival peak season. In big cities, such as Beijing,
Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuchang and Chengdu, trains transport about
100,000 passengers every day, according to previous stories.
Meanwhile, the National Development and Reform Commission,
China's top pricing body, said in a report in November that train
fares are likely to rise in the peak season as costs surge with
crude oil prices continually hitting new highs.
China raised the prices of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel by
500 yuan (US$68.49) a ton last July because of rising oil prices.
Crude rose to a record US$100 a barrel yesterday on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
(Shanghai Daily January 3, 2008)