High-speed railway passengers surge in holiday

BEIJING -- Beijing railway stations saw greater numbers of passengers than last year during the recent eight-day national holiday, with the number of high-speed railway travelers up significantly, railway authorities said Monday.

As of Oct 7, the last day of the eight-day holiday, a daily average of 75,000 passengers had taken the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, up 74 percent from the same period last year, the Beijing Railway Bureau said.

Between Sept 27 and Oct 7, the Beijing railway stations saw nearly 9.06 million passengers, a rise of 12 percentage points year-on-year. A total of 418 temporary trains were put into service during the holiday to cope with the surging demand.

Lasting from Sept 30 to Oct 7, the holiday this year bridged the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day Holiday and created a longer peak travel period that began on Sept 27.