Passenger turnover by railway in China 2009-2021
In 2021, railway passenger turnover in China amounted to about 0.96 trillion passenger kilometers. The volume of railway passenger transport is calculated from the product of the number of passengers and the distance traveled in kilometers.
The rail system in China
As of 2021, the total operating length of rail network in China amounted to 150,000 kilometers. Since the availability of resources varies greatly throughout China, the railways play an essential role in dealing with the allocation of resources. Among regions with extended rail network, Inner Mongolia has the longest railroad network in China with over 14,000 kilometers in 2020.
Rail passengers
Like many countries without budget airlines, most Chinese rely primarily on the rail to move around the country. As the rail network keeps growing, such as the expanding high-speed rail (HSR) network, the number of train passengers in China is increasing in parallel. The number peaked at 3.66 billion in 2019 before dropping sharply to 2.2 billion in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel. While more people prefer to travel by train, the average annual transport distance of rail passengers had decreased by more than 140 kilometers in the last decade. Regional-wise, Guangdong, Henan, and Hunan provinces had the highest rail passenger transport capacities among all the regions in China.
The rail system in China
As of 2021, the total operating length of rail network in China amounted to 150,000 kilometers. Since the availability of resources varies greatly throughout China, the railways play an essential role in dealing with the allocation of resources. Among regions with extended rail network, Inner Mongolia has the longest railroad network in China with over 14,000 kilometers in 2020.
Rail passengers
Like many countries without budget airlines, most Chinese rely primarily on the rail to move around the country. As the rail network keeps growing, such as the expanding high-speed rail (HSR) network, the number of train passengers in China is increasing in parallel. The number peaked at 3.66 billion in 2019 before dropping sharply to 2.2 billion in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel. While more people prefer to travel by train, the average annual transport distance of rail passengers had decreased by more than 140 kilometers in the last decade. Regional-wise, Guangdong, Henan, and Hunan provinces had the highest rail passenger transport capacities among all the regions in China.
