An engineer inspects a train at a railway maintenance workshop in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Friday, in preparation for the forthcoming Spring Festival travel rush. CHEN JIMIN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE
China will adopt deeper ticket price discounts and enhance transportation capacity during the upcoming Spring Festival holidays to guarantee people's travel needs and experiences, senior travel officials said on Friday.
"We plan to increase the discounts on ticket prices with a maximum of 80 percent off for regular trains and 70 percent off for high-speed trains, further benefiting the general public," Wang Jinxi, deputy general manager of China State Railway Group, said at the national Spring Festival transportation teleconference.
According to Li Chunlin, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, this year will witness surging demand for return trips home, to visit relatives and travel, due to the recovery of the economy and this year's comparatively long Spring Festival holiday.
"We estimate that the scale of passenger flows will exceed pre-pandemic levels," said Li, adding that the average daily passenger railway traffic is expected to soar to 12 million, a year-on-year increase of 38 percent, and that of civil aviation is expected to reach 2 million, a year-on-year increase of 45 percent.
To tackle the expected travel rush, Wang said that in areas with concentrated passenger flows and during peak periods, railway departments will implement tailored measures, such as arranging additional temporary passenger trains, adding extra carriages to regular trains and operating night high-speed trains.
Wang proposed to guarantee the smooth operation of slow trains, which stop at every county and township station and connect remote villages with nearby towns and cities, considering their importance for home-bound rural workers.
In addition to passenger transportation, Wang proposed to prioritize the freight transportation of key supplies to ensure citizens' livelihoods and consolidate stable international supply chains.
Ma Bing, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said that the administration has added more flights to prepare for the growing needs. The average number of flights will reach 16,500, a year-on-year increase of 24 percent.
The administration will strengthen price supervision and take measures to guarantee fair competition during the travel rush to secure a stable and orderly civil aviation transport market, Ma said.
Ma said that the administration will assist the ticket-buying and boarding of foreigners with the new version of China's Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card, which was officially issued and came into use last month.
