China State Railway Group announced that 18.5 million passenger journeys were expected on 23 February—the final day of the extended nine-day Lunar New Year break—setting a new single-day record. To meet the spike in demand, the state-owned operator deployed 2,297 extra services on major business corridors linking Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Chengdu-Chongqing.
High-speed lines carried the bulk of the traffic, with occupancy on trunk routes averaging 96 percent. The Beijing–Shanghai route alone ran more than 320 pairs of Fuxing bullet trains, many converted from eight- to sixteen-car formations to boost capacity by 50 percent. Digital ticketing upgrades—including real-time seat resale and multilingual e-refunds—helped smooth flows for foreign executives and Chinese professionals returning to work assignments.
![Railway operator adds 2,300 trains to handle record post-holiday return rush]()
The Ministry of Transport said the rail plan was coordinated with additional airport slots and highway toll-gate staffing to maintain multimodal connectivity. Employers are being advised to stagger return-to-office dates or offer flexible working to avoid congestion-related delays that can disrupt post-holiday project kick-offs.
For global mobility leaders, China’s ability to scale its domestic transport network is a positive signal that large conferences and cross-city rotations can resume without the bottlenecks seen in early 2023. Nevertheless, travellers should allow extra time at stations this week as residual flows taper off.
High-speed lines carried the bulk of the traffic, with occupancy on trunk routes averaging 96 percent. The Beijing–Shanghai route alone ran more than 320 pairs of Fuxing bullet trains, many converted from eight- to sixteen-car formations to boost capacity by 50 percent. Digital ticketing upgrades—including real-time seat resale and multilingual e-refunds—helped smooth flows for foreign executives and Chinese professionals returning to work assignments.
The Ministry of Transport said the rail plan was coordinated with additional airport slots and highway toll-gate staffing to maintain multimodal connectivity. Employers are being advised to stagger return-to-office dates or offer flexible working to avoid congestion-related delays that can disrupt post-holiday project kick-offs.
For global mobility leaders, China’s ability to scale its domestic transport network is a positive signal that large conferences and cross-city rotations can resume without the bottlenecks seen in early 2023. Nevertheless, travellers should allow extra time at stations this week as residual flows taper off.
Source: People’s Daily Online / Xinhua
