Train trips surge during peak season

BEIJING - Almost 106 million trips were made on China's railway network during the first two weeks of the summer travel peak season that started on July 1, latest data showed on Tuesday.

On average, 7.56 million trips were made on trains each day during the past two weeks, up 13.8 percent year on year, according to data released by the China Railway Corporation.

The highest daily peak came on July 12, with more than 8.19 million trips made, data showed. The company said that the travel rush was due to a sharp rise in the number of students who were starting their summer holidays.

Meanwhile, high-speed trains were increasingly favored among travellers. More than 2,600 high-speed trains have been in operation daily since the peak season started, carrying 2.76 million passengers on average each day.

The data also showed that high-speed trains attracted 36.6 percent of the total passenger flow within the country's railway network during the past fortnight.

Popular lines such as Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed links recorded 403,000 and 355,000 passengers daily.