Affected by the epidemic, China’s railway passenger volume continued to decline. In April 2022, China Railway only sent 57 million passengers, a year-on-year decrease of 79.8%. This is since the establishment of China Railway Corporation and China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “National Railway Group”) after the revocation of the Ministry of Railways in 2013. the all-time low. On May 18, the State Railway Administration released the “Completion of China’s Railway Major Indicators in April 2022”, revealing the above information.
Except for April 2022, in the past 10 years, the second low point of China’s railway passenger traffic was the first year of the outbreak. In April 2020, China’s railway passenger volume was 112 million, although this is still nearly double the current passenger volume.
The monthly data fell to the bottom, and the cumulative data also showed a sharp drop. Data from the State Railway Administration shows that in the first four months of 2022, China’s railway passenger volume was 528 million, a year-on-year decrease of 36.1%. The current railway passenger volume is only 40% of the same period in 2019 before the epidemic.
Since March 2022, due to the continuous increase in epidemic control, railway passenger traffic has shown a downward trend month by month. In the first two months of 2022, China’s railway passenger traffic increased by 23.0% year-on-year, and began to plummet in the first quarter, with a year-on-year decrease of 13.5%. Among them, only 101 million passengers were sent in March, a year-on-year decrease of 58.4%. The cumulative passenger volume is the first time in 13 months. negative growth again.
Rail passenger traffic has continued to decline or has not yet bottomed out. During the “May Day” holiday in 2022 (April 28 to May 5), only 24.757 million passengers will be sent along the whole route. Compared with the “May Day” holiday in 2021 (April 29 to May 6), the total railway The number of passengers sent was 117 million, a year-on-year decrease of 78.63%, a new low for the same period since the COVID-19 epidemic (2020).
Data show that during the “May 1st” holiday in 2021, the number of passengers sent by China Railway increased by 11.54 million or 11% compared with the same period in 2019; during the “May 1st” holiday in 2020, China Railway sent 33.85 million passengers.
The current overall recovery of railway passenger transport is much lower than in 2021. In 2021, the number of national railway passengers will reach 2.53 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%. In 2021, the railway passenger flow will recover to 70.69% of the pre-epidemic level. In 2022, the national railway passenger volume target is 3.038 billion, which is expected to increase by 20% year-on-year.
Rail freight is the exact opposite of passenger transport. Since the beginning of this year, the national railway cargo delivery volume has maintained rapid growth. In the first four months, a total of 1.278 billion tons of cargo was sent, an increase of 4.50% year-on-year, of which 330 million tons were sent in April, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%. In April, the average daily loading of national railways was 182,600 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%, the best level in history, and the year-on-year increase in cumulative freight volume hit a new high in seven months.
In terms of construction, in the first four months, China Railway opened 581 kilometers of new lines, including 358 kilometers of high-speed railways, completing 17.61% and 25.57% of the planned target value for the year respectively. In 2022, the railway plans to put into operation more than 3,300 kilometers of new lines, including about 1,400 kilometers of high-speed railways. On May 16, the National Railway Group held a party group (expanded) meeting and also emphasized that the advanced layout is conducive to leading industrial development and maintaining key projects of national security.
Data from the State Railway Administration also shows that in the first four months, China Railway completed a total of 157.46 billion yuan in fixed asset investment, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%. In 2021, China Railway completed a fixed asset investment of 748.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.22%, the lowest in eight years.
