On July 1, 2006, the opening to traffic of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the key project of western development, finally provided Tibet with access to a railway. It helped Tibet form increasingly integrated transportation system comprising railway, civil aviation and highways, which greatly improved transportation capacity and reduced the cost of materials transported to and from the region. In 2006, Tibet moved 3.5963 million tons of goods, a fall of 2.7 percent from 2005, including 3.46 million tons of goods transported via highways, down 3.1 percent; 21,000 tons of goods via railways; 10,800 tons of goods via aviation, up 42.8 percent; and 114,000 tons of goods via pipelines, down 3.0 percent. Meanwhile, the year also saw a volume of passenger traffic of 6.0561 million person times, registering an increase of 26.3 percent, including 4.448 million person-times via highways, up 25.1 percent; 279,000 person times via railways; 1.2291 million person times via aviation, up 19.5 percent. |
