Coronavirus: train travel down but freight surges as Chinese stay home for Lunar New Year holiday
- Railway passenger traffic drops nearly 70 per cent in first 15 days of the travel rush, when hundreds of millions usually visit their families
- Restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 also resulted in huge demand for freight transport, railway operator says
Lunar New Year’s Day fell on Friday, but the annual 40-day travel period – known as chunyun or the Spring Festival travel rush – officially began in late January.
State media reported over the weekend that railway passenger traffic was down some 68.8 per cent to 52.3 million trips in the first 15 days of the travel period, a much steeper decline than the national rail operator had expected.
But the China State Railway Group said in a statement on Friday that rail cargo volume increased 8.9 per cent in the same period from a year ago. State broadcaster CCTV said international air cargo flights had tripled in the first four days of the national holiday that began on Thursday.
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Coronavirus in China: Celebrating Lunar New Year away from home
Usually the Spring Festival travel season sees a mass migration of people, as hundreds of millions of Chinese visit their families for the holiday. Millions were stranded last year when the pandemic hit and lockdown measures were imposed across the country. Journeys on all major forms of transport during last year’s travel period fell by half to 1.48 billion trips compared to 2019, while railway passenger numbers were down 47.3 per cent, according to state media.
