Beijing expects 300,000 train passengers Saturday

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-31 11:02

BEIJING -- Railway stations in the Chinese capital anticipates another travel peak as the weeklong Spring Festival ends on Saturday.

Migrant workers walk out of Hangzhou Railway Station in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Jan. 30, 2009. As the Spring Festival holiday is about to finish, passenger transportation of the Spring Festival started to reach the peak of return passengers.[Xinhua]

About 300,000 people are expected to arrive in Beijing by train on Saturday, according to the municipal transport authorities.

The number of in-bound train passengers reached the climax on Friday, and is expected to last for about at least a week, Saturday's "Beijing Times" quoted the municipal railway bureau as saying.

The west railway station received 140,000 passengers on Friday, 20,000 more than the same day of last year, and the number is to hit 160,000 on Saturday, said Jin Long, deputy party secretary of the station.

The station will add 40 pairs of temporary passenger trains on Saturday, said Jin, who admitted that the transport pressure will continue until February 9, or the Chinese Lantern Festival, as the flow of migrant workers and university students will be subdued by then.

The station will also add about 20 to 30 temporary passenger trains a day from Sunday on.

The Beijing railway station has seen steady passenger inflows in the past few days, while the south railway station witnessed a sharp increase in short-haul passengers which numbered 35,000 on Friday.