[News Essay] What does the New High in Railway Summer Transport Data Mean for Passenger Trains | Railway | Data
News Essay
Author: Chen Cheng
On August 22nd, data released by China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed that the summer railway passenger flow across the country continued to maintain a high level. From July 1st to August 21st, a total of 701 million passengers were sent, of which 15.686 million were sent on August 19th, setting a new historical high in the daily passenger volume of summer transportation. The daily average number of passenger trains operated by railways in China reached 10444, an increase of 15.8% compared to the same period in 2019.
China has a large population and vast territory. Due to the lack of sufficient competitiveness in highway passenger transportation due to factors such as duration, comfort, and price, people usually choose railways and civil aviation for medium and long-distance travel. The phenomenon of large-scale high transportation pressure during summer and spring vacations, as well as multiple small holidays, is an important window for observing China's transportation capacity and economic and social development status. Due to the much higher transportation capacity of railways compared to civil aviation, highways, and waterways, railway passenger flow data becomes particularly important.
From the currently released passenger flow data of summer transportation railways, it can be seen that "the daily passenger volume of summer transportation breaks the historical record" and "the average daily passenger train operation has increased significantly compared to the same period in 2019". These data all demonstrate the strong demand for railway travel and the significant development of China's railway infrastructure construction. The increase in the number of passenger trains is closely related to the opening of new high-speed railway lines and the increase in operating mileage in China. With the gradual implementation of the "Medium - and Long Term Railway Network Plan", the construction of the "Eight Verticals and Eight Horizontals" high-speed railway corridor is gradually underway. The operating mileage of high-speed railways in China exceeds 42000 kilometers, and more and more provinces, cities, and counties are accessing trains for the first time. The operating mileage of high-speed rail lines is constantly increasing, and the number of new high-speed rail stations is constantly increasing, which means that high-speed trains must increase their number of trips in order to continuously meet the growing demand for high-speed rail travel. In the future, the daily average number of passenger trains will undoubtedly reach a new high.
As an important component of the country's major infrastructure, the construction of high-speed railways requires a significant amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. The ability to continuously invest heavily in infrastructure is sufficient to demonstrate China's economic strength and current economic and social development status. Such investment will also receive feedback from a long-term perspective. As people often say, "To become rich, build roads first.". Railway construction projects have large investments, long industrial chains, wide coverage, and strong driving effects. During the construction process, they can not only attract a large number of employment, but also improve the level of infrastructure technology and technological hard power due to the changing terrain and topography of our country. In the process of railway construction, a large number of new technologies, materials, and equipment are derived, and other related industries are fed back. After the completion and opening of the railway, it will also bring production materials and personnel flow to relevant regions, accelerating the development of local economy.
This summer, with the busy railway passenger transportation, the increasingly convenient railway travel has led the general public to choose high-speed rail for medium and long-distance travel. Recently, the railway department announced that it will further optimize and improve the 12306 passenger information service function, providing travel information services covering ticket purchase, boarding, ticket refund and change, suspension notice, delay notification, etc., to better meet the needs of passenger information services and improve the travel experience. In recent years, the significant changes and progress in railway services have been noticed by many passengers, which will also become an important reason for people to choose railway travel.
Guangming Daily