Passenger Flow Rebound Continued with Positive Momentum and Freight Traffic Maintained at High Level

224 Million Passenger Trips and 410 Million Tons of Goods Delivered by National Railways in July

        CHINA RAILWAY has conscientiously implemented the deployment requirements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on stabilizing the economic performance. To properly meet the market demands, efficient steps were taken to coordinate epidemic prevention and control with passenger and freight transport, and the transport capacity resources of the newly launched railways were exploited to further improve the quality of passenger and freight services, fully meeting the demands of the people for summer travel and logistics services, and offering strong support to the stable and healthy economic and social development.

         First, CR implemented flexible plans and operated additional passenger trains, meeting changing demands of passengers. By looking into the ticket pre-sale and waitlist data on 12306.cn, the official booking platform, CR captured the trends of travel and optimized the operation of passenger trains by implementing the “one day one diagram” strategy, meeting the travel demands of passengers. Keeping a close eye on epidemic prevention and control policies of different cities, which are under adjustment all the time due to uncertainties posed by COVID-19, CR adopted diversified strategies for allocating transport capacity on inter-provincial, inter-city and intra-city routes, with a focus on increasing the capacity on popular routes in low-risk areas. Targeting the concentrated student and tourist passenger flow peaks during the summer vacation period, CR operated coupled EMU trains, attached additional coaches to conventional speed trains, and ran special trains for students and tourists. It also established a quick response mechanism to deal with sudden passenger flow surge, such as having extra trains and train crew stand ready at major hubs, in case of the need to putting additional trains into operation anytime.

          Second, CR made full use of the capacity resources of newly launched railways, promoting the integrated development of “HSR + tourism”. With new transport capacity brought by the Xiangyangdong-Wanzhoubei section of Zhengzhou-Chongqing HSR, the Puyang-Zhengzhou section of Jinan-Zhengzhou HSR, Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway as well as other new lines, CR formulated meticulous operation plans to offer more convenient passenger services. Concrete efforts made to promote the integrated development of “HSR + tourism” injected new impetus into tourist recovery, encouraging passengers choosing train travel and tourists visiting scenic spots. In coordination with the local governments and scenic spots, CR launched “HSR travel to Three Gorges”, “HSR travel to Shennongjia”, “train travel to Xinjiang” as well as other promotion activities. Passengers are entitled to have free admission to some tourist attractions and accommodation discount, a selling point for passengers. The Zhengzhou-Chongqing HSR since fully completed registered an average of 157,000 in daily passenger traffic, with Fengjie, Wushan and Shennongjia stations recording 13,000 inbound and 9,400 outbound passengers on a daily basis, greatly promoting the visit to the Three Gorges and the Shennongjia National Park.

         Third, CR ramped up the efforts to guarantee smooth transport and to maintain freight transport volume at a high level. Further steps were taken to boost freight transport, and guarantee the transport of significant daily necessities, key producer goods, and anti-epidemic supplies, thus providing strong support for stable industrial and supply chains. The transport of coal was organized meticulously by taking full use of the west-east and north-south coal transport corridors, ensuring that all freight transport demands were satisfied through quick loading and express transport. The national railways delivered 138.14 million tons of coal, with a year-on-year increase of 40%, and the average duration of sufficient coal stock in the 363 power plants directly supplied by rail nationwide reached 23.2 days, ensuring that the “peak electricity demand in summer” was met across the country. CR also formulated elaborated plans in a scientific way and opened up green channels to transport summer grain. The national railways delivered a total of 8.21 million tons of grain crops, up 4.6% year on year. Proactive actions were taken to promote freight transport to shift from road to rail and made vigorous efforts to strengthen the container transport organization and develop multimodal transport, achieving an average daily container loading of 41,583 wagons over the national railways, up 23.7% year on year.

          Fourth, CR coordinated the epidemic prevention and control with passenger and freight transport, continually improving service quality. CR Implemented the ninth edition of the New Coronary Pneumonia Prevention and Control Plan issued by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism Comprehensive Team of the State Council, promoted data sharing on 12306 platform during the epidemic, and integrated nucleic acid test results and ticket information for one-time checking at ticket checking terminals of some stations on a pilot basis. The basic services are better guaranteed, such as cleaning, catering and water supply, and services for passengers with special needs are improved. QR code for railway passenger service was piloted for 550 EMUs on Beijing-Guangzhou HSR and other lines, with constantly improved service interfaces and functions, to promote the transformation and upgrading of railway en route services. The 95306-platform were optimized with online and centralized service of freight transport. All-round paperless services were provided and continuous efforts were made to enhance facilitation and customer service experience, in a bid to raise the freight transport efficiency and reduce logistics costs.