Passenger transport volume of highspeed railways in China 2008-2021

In 2021, highspeed rail in China transported over 1.9 billion passengers, an increase of 23.1 percent compared to the previous year.

Declining profits and even losses

High-speed rail (HSR) provides social and economic benefits to cities by facilitating the rapid movement of people and goods. Regarding HSR profitability, the state-owned China Railway Corporation (CRC) has reported an annual operating loss of about 30 billion yuan for the past two consecutive years. Even the Beijing-Shanghai line, China's most profitable high-speed rail line, reported 56.6 percent less net profit in 2021 than in 2019.

COVID-19 outbreak disrupted rail transport

The number of rail passengers in China peaked at 3.66 billion in 2019 before dropping sharply to 2.2 billion in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel, such as the suspension of inter-provincial rail travel. Citizens were urged not to travel during the holiday season, especially during Chinese New Year, which was regarded as the biggest human migration taking place event every year. The low passenger volume in Chinese New Year in 2020 went even lower entering 2021 and 2022 with the lingering coronavirus.