China: Heavy pressure on passenger transport during Tet

Due to the huge volume, the year-end passenger transport in China is still considered the "largest migration on the planet".

The Chinese New Year is the most important family reunion for the Chinese people, so despite the long distances and difficult travel, hundreds of millions of people still flock to their hometowns to celebrate the festival. Such transportation during the festival is often described as “the largest population movement on the planet” and puts a huge strain on the country’s transportation system.

Beijing Railway Station is packed with passengers at the end of the year.

Beijing Railway Station, one of the four largest railway stations in Beijing (China), specializes in transporting passengers from the capital to northern Chinese provinces such as Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang... and vice versa.

In the last days of the Year of the Monkey, people still jostled to buy tickets and waited to board the train to return home for Tet. This year, the station recorded a new record with 190,000 passengers in one day during the first days of the peak passenger transport period during Tet, also known as "Spring transport", a high increase compared to the level of nearly 100,000 passengers on a normal day.

Due to the sudden increase in the number of passengers, the situation of jostling, waiting to buy tickets and lining up to board the train to go home for Tet is still a nightmare for many people.

Mr. Thuong Phong, a worker from Heilongjiang, expressed his frustration with the queue to buy tickets: “I have been queuing since early morning and have finally bought a ticket. Every year it is like this. It is very difficult, but there is no other way because I still have to go home for Tet.”

People line up to buy train tickets to go home for Tet in China.

The peak period for passenger transport during Tet this year lasts from January 13 to February 21. It is estimated that there will be nearly 3 billion passenger trips during this peak period, an increase of 2.2% over the same period last year. Of these, about 356 million will travel by rail, 2.52 billion by car and 43.5 million by air.

Due to the sudden increase in passenger traffic during the Spring Festival, the transportation capacity of China's means of transport cannot meet the needs of the people, although the country's infrastructure system has developed rapidly in recent years.

The sudden increase in travel demand during the Lunar New Year not only causes many difficulties and inconveniences for people, but also puts heavy pressure on authorities in arranging transportation and ensuring safety for hundreds of millions of Chinese people returning home for the Lunar New Year./.

According to VOV