Plenty of traffic along Lhasa-Nyingchi line

The month-old railway linking Lhasa and Nyingchi in the Tibet autonomous region has already handled 106,000 trips, cutting travel times and benefiting local residents and travelers.

One recent passenger was President Xi Jinping, who took a train ride during his visit to Tibet last week.

National railway operator China State Railway Group said the line, which links Lhasa, the regional capital, with major cities, has handled an average of 3,500 trips a day.

The long-awaited railway line began operation on June 25, linking Lhasa to Nyingchi and Lhokha.

It has cut travel time between Lhasa and Nyingchi to 3.5 hours, half the time taken by road transport. It has also reduced travel time between Lhokha and Nyingchi to about 2.5 hours, 2 hours less than by car.

According to Lhasa railway authorities, there is a sufficient supply of tickets for trips between Lhasa, Lhokha and Nyingchi to meet the needs of passengers, including tourists, students commuting between home and school, as well as people visiting families and traveling for work.

To provide better service to passengers, crew members have received training to serve as translators, tour guides and sometimes physicians, if needed due to the high altitude of the line. The train's radio repeatedly broadcasts instructions on using oxygen equipment during the trip.

The company is also paying great attention to the maintenance of the train. A full inspection of seats, air conditioners and oxygen generators is carried out after each journey.

The line, the first railway in the southeast of Tibet, extended the coverage of Fuxing bullet train services to all provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland.

With a length of 435 kilometers and trains traveling at up to 160 km per hour, it features four pairs of passenger trains operating between Lhasa and Nyingchi, and one passenger train between Shigatse and Nyingchi.

Backed by an investment of 36 billion yuan ($5.5 billion), construction started in March 2015. There are 47 tunnels and 121 bridges along the line.

Palden Nyima and Cao Desheng contributed to this story.