Despite steady growth in freight capacity, China's railway system finds it difficult to meet around 35 percent increase of the freight demand at present, said a Chinese railway official. "The railway freight system is under increasing pressure. Quite a number of trunk lines have been operating at full or above capacity," Wu Qiang, director of the freight bureau of China's Ministry of Railways, said in Beijing Tuesday.

According to statistics from railway departments, daily requests for freight cars increased 50 percent in the first quarter on average. There were requests for nearly 300,000 cars in April, yet the railway system could only meet around 35 percent of them.

The gap between capacity and demand would further increase in the future, said a forecast of the railway departments.

Wu Qiang said most sections of the Beijing-Guangzhou and Lanzhou-Lianyungang railways have been used at above 90 percent of their capacity, or 100 percent in a number of sections. The demand on the Beijing-Shanghai railway has exceeded capacity by 50 percent.

Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway, a major coal transport route with a designed capacity of 100 million tons, actually carried 120 million tons of coal in 2003 and is predicted to carry 150 million tons in 2004.

Due to strained freight capacity, grain, oil and timber produced in northeast China's fertile lands are unable to be transported to other parts of China as quickly as needed.

Source: Xinhua