Passenger Transport
Rail is one of the principal means of transport in China, with over 1.3 billion railway trips taken in 2007 and 1.4 billion estimated for 2008. In 2008, 1.456 billion people travelled 772.8 billion km by rail.
As the above numbers indicates, an average trip length in 2008 was about 500 km, which means that people in China now use railways primarily for long-distance trips, while more local travel is accomplished by bus. This contrasts greatly with countries such as Germany, where an average rail trip is only about 40 km long (39.7 billion passenger-km on just over a billion passenger trips over the DB system during the first 6 months of 2012). This difference may be explained by the near-absence of traditional commuter rail systems (low cost, frequent service, frequent stops) in China; the incipient Beijing Suburban Railway may perhaps be their only specimen in the country. However, a number of high-speed intercity railways have been opened since 2005, and many more are under construction; they may attract an increasing share of short-distance trips, at least among the better-off segment of the population.
The Spring Festival Travel Season is the peak railway travel season of the year.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In The People's Republic Of China
Famous quotes containing the words passenger and/or transport:
“Every American travelling in England gets his own individual sport out of the toy passenger and freight trains and the tiny locomotives, with their faint, indignant, tiny whistle. Especially in western England one wonders how the business of a nation can possibly be carried on by means so insufficient.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and ... powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)