China's railway travel to see an increase in passengers

BEIJING Reuters -- As China loosens its months-long COVID 19 curbs, railway travel is expected to see an increase in passengers just in time for the summer transport season, which starts on July 1.

By August 31, the number of passenger trips on China's railway network is expected to reach 520 million and 10 million on peak days.

The national railway is also opening new stations, such as the Xiangwan section of the Zhengzhou-Chongqing high-speed railway, the Puzheng section of the Jizheng high-speed railway, the Heruo Railway and the Beijing Fengtai Station.

The summer season last year, passenger trips on the national railway network totalled 462 million during the summer season, which falls during a 62 day period ending Aug. 31.

Travel took a hit last summer as more infectious Delta variants caused outbreaks, prompting authorities across the country to impose mass testing for millions of people as well as travel restrictions of varying degrees in August. The curbs hit the catering, transportation, accommodation and entertainment industries particularly hard.

456 million passenger trips were made by rail in the summer of 2020. The country's passenger traffic for summer 2019 was 735 million trips, an increase of 69.256 million year-on-year, or 10.4%, a far cry from pre-pandemic levels.

On Wednesday, Beijing slashed COVID 19 quarantine requirements and tweaked its state-mandated mobile app for local travel, sparking a rush for online searches for Chinese airline tickets on domestic and international routes.

The railway department said on Thursday that strict measures will still be enforced at station cars, such as temperature measurement and code verification, dispersed waiting, ventilation and disinfection, reserved isolation seats, and strict control of train load rates.