Chartered trains help migrant workers get back to their jobs

China's national railway operator has been providing chartered train services in an effort to help migrant workers return to their workplaces in a safe and orderly manner amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

As of Sunday, China State Railway Group had sent a total of 300 chartered trains and returned over 332,000 workers, with another 13 trains ready to leave within the coming days.

On Feb 16, the first such train service for returning workers left Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, carrying nearly 300 workers from Guizhou who were returning to work in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province.

The railway authority will enhance chartered train services in line with the resumption plan of local companies and workers' return trip demands, it said, adding that it will also ramp up disinfection and health check efforts.

The company also has been injecting efforts to push forward resumption of 116 major railway projects planned for this year.

As of Sunday, a total of 108, or 93 percent of the major railway projects, had resumed construction with over 450,000 people working on sites, including parts of the Beijing-Shenyang high-speed railway and Beijing-Xiongan intercity railway, according to the company.

The other eight railway projects, with two in Central China's Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, and six in northeastern and northwestern China's cold regions, haven't met the conditions for construction, it added.