BEIJING, Feb 7 – Bad weather in the coming week might choke the railway system which is now already groaning under the Spring Festival rush.
China’s Railways Ministry spokeman Wang Yongping said the shutdown of highways and airports due to the bad weather could lead to a sudden influx of travellers using the railways.
In a special briefing to the foreign media at the Beijing South Railway Station today, he said the meteorological department had forecast heavy rain in central and southern China, and snow and fog in northern China next week.
Wang said, although the ministry had previously encountered bad weather during similar rush periods, a sudden influx of passengers would add pressure to the rail system.
The railway network is expected to handle 210 million passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival period.
However, Wang said the ministry had drawn up a contingency plan to increase ad hoc train services to meet the demand.
“We will stop goods train services, if necessary, to clear the way for passenger transport which is our priority. We will also move more coaches from non-peak stations to stations with heavy load of passengers,” he added.
So far, the ministry has moved 836 coaches from Urumqi, Shenyang, Lanzhou and Kunming stations to meet the demand for coaches in Guangzhou and Shanghai stations.
Apart from the existing Tianjin-Beijing Express lines, two high-speed express lines have begun operations, beginning this year. They are the Guanzhou-Wuhan and Zhengzhou-Xian lines. – Bernama
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