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China railways carry record 6.54M passengers on May 1

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-03 11:23

BEIJING -- Chinese railways carried a record 6.54 million passengers on May 1, the first day of the three-day May Day holiday, as the country boosted capacity with faster trains and more seats, the Ministry of Railways said Sunday.

The number of passengers was 641,000 more than on the same day last year, up 10.9 percent, thanks to a capacity boost since the country launched a new railway schedule April 1 featuring faster trips and more seats.

The ministry said an average 66.5 new passenger trains were put into use every day on the new schedule, with an increase of 238,000 more seats every day.

The number of passengers on Friday has topped the previous daily passenger record.

The ministry said 5 million of the total had made medium- or short-distance trips, as people switched to shorter-distance trips to cope with the shorter holiday.

Chinese workers had seven days off, instead of the current three days, during the May Day holiday, before a new holiday system kicked in last year.

Passenger flow surged to 5.73 million on April 30, a day ahead of the May Day holiday running from Friday to Sunday, up 8.5 percent from a year ago.