China's railways carried a record number of passengers on the first day of 2013 due to a surge in the number of middle- and short-distance travelers during the three-day New Year holiday, the Ministry of Railways said Thursday.
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About 5.67 million passengers took trains on New Year's Day, marking a rise of 16.3 percent from the number recorded during the same period last year, the ministry said.
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The number of passengers increased the most in central China's Hubei province, with the Wuhan municipal railway bureau recording a 41.2-percent year-on-year increase, the ministry said.
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Intercity railways, particularly the new Harbin-Dalian and Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railways, have boosted travel demand, the ministry said.
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The Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, the world's longest, opened on Dec. 26, cutting travel time between the cities to about 8 hours.
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The ministry said that it expects another travel peak on Thursday as people return to work.Â