China mobilizes more transport resources as Spring Festival travel peaks

BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- As the Chinese Spring Festival travel rush enters its peak period, more work staff and transport resources have been deployed to ensure safe and convenient transport during the world's largest annual human migration.

At 8 a.m. on Jan. 20, two days ahead of the Chinese New Year, Dong Leihong, duty officer at the road network center with the Ministry of Transport (MOT), sat before a huge monitoring screen that displayed real-time highway transport conditions nationwide.

"Good news! The fog has almost all lifted. Only some local lines in Shanxi province have been blocked by snow. Road transport in the country's other regions is normal," Dong said.

The screen showed that some work staff at local toll stations in Shanxi were clearing away the snow, while vehicles were running smoothly despite rain on a section of the Shanghai-Kunming Highway located in eastern Jiangxi province.

About 840,000 passenger cars were put into service to meet the day's road travel demand, MOT Spokesman He Jianzhong said at the center. An estimated 82.9 million passenger trips by bus were recorded that day, an increase of 10.8 percent from a year earlier.

Passenger trips are expected to rise 9.1 percent year-on-year to hit 3.16 billion during this year's festival travel period, prompting the country's transport system to mobilize more resources.

Moreover, the railway, aviation and public security sectors have also adopted multiple measures to embrace the heat of the ongoing 40-day travel rush that started on Jan. 8.