Highway, train and airport traffic expected to surge over weekend

Railways, highways and airports across the country have seen increasing passenger flow since Thursday, as millions of students, migrant workers and tourists return to work or study after the traditional Spring Festival.

The four railway stations in Beijing, one of the popular destinations for job hunters, received 150,000 passengers Thursday and the number was expected to sharply increase Friday, the last day of the seven-day Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, Beijing Railways Bureau said in a press release.

The authorities of Beijing Railway Station and Beijing West Railway Station scheduled 18 additional roundtrips to cope with peak travel, it said.

The public transportation authority of Beijing has mobilized more buses to ensure passengers can leave railway stations as quickly as possible.

The ticket hall of Shijiazhuang Railway Station in the capital of Hebei province was crammed with anxious passengers Friday, where more than 52,000 people were expected to travel by train.

One passenger, Wang Aishu was at ease because he was holding a ticket he bought six days ago. "I knew there will be a travel peak so I bought a ticket as soon as I arrived at the station on the eve of the Spring Festival," said Wang, who was heading for Dongguan city in Guangdong province to work.

The railway station of Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in south China, was expected to see 34,000 passengers leaving for other regions on Friday.

One passenger surnamed Huang failed to get a ticket to his workplace in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.

"Tickets are sold out, and only tickets for trains leaving after Feb 25 are available," said Huang, heavy luggage in hand.

In Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, railway authorities have loosened regulations on real-name tickets since Wednesday to facilitate travelers.

Passengers making short trips by train from Sichuan to the neighboring Guizhou province and Chongqing municipality no longer have to show their ID cards to buy tickets. However, passengers making long-distance trips still do, local railway authorities said.

The country's railways served about 5.44 million passengers nationwide on Thursday, an increase of 12.5 percent over the comparable day last year, according to the Ministry of Railways (MOR) on Friday.

MOR officials had estimated that about 210 million passengers will travel during the 40-day rush period beginning Jan 30, a 9.5 percent rise compared with a year earlier.

Xinhua contributed to the story