Passenger Train Classes and Route Identifiers
See also: Railroad directionsEvery train route has an identification number of two to five characters arranged by the Ministry of Railways. The first character can be alphabetic or numeric, while the second to fifth characters are all numeric.
Trains are classified as up trains or down trains. Since Beijing is seen as the centre of the network, the train from Beijing is the down service, while the train towards Beijing is the up service. Trains that do not go to Beijing are designated up or down based on the railway they are traveling on. Railways that do not go to Beijing are up or down based on whether they are going in the direction that goes towards or away from Beijing. Train routes that change from up service to down service while traveling in a certain direction might use two different route numbers. For example a train from Qingdao to Xian begins as up service as it travels approaching Beijing and changes to down service when it reaches the point where its travel is away from Beijing all the while travelling westerly.
Down trains use odd numbers, while up trains use even numbers. For example, the T103 travels from Beijing to Shanghai, and the K9008 travels from Shenzhen to Yueyang
- Some examples of double or triple train numbers that switch up and down during their route
- The Shanghai to Harbin train is the K56/57 - it uses K56 before Tianjin (Travelling through "up-direction" of Jinghu railway), and uses K57 after Tianjin (Travelling through "down-direction" of Jinshan railway.
- The Shanghai to Chengdu is the K290/291 - it uses K290 before Xuzhou (towards Beijing on the Beijing-Shanghai Railway), and uses K291 after Xuzhou (east to west on the Longhai Railway and north to south on the Baoji-Chengdu Railway).
Read more about this topic: Passenger Rail Transport In China
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