With just weeks to go before the Spring Festival of 2020, the railway system in the Yangtze River Delta is now bracing for the travel rush, known in Mandarin as “Chunyun”, the largest annual migration on earth.

According to the latest plan, the Shanghai Railway Bureau has arranged 1,276 passenger trains (including 950 bullet trains) for this year’s travel rush, hitting a new record in its history. Among them, 276 trains are extra trains.

Chunyun 2020 will last for 40 days, from January 10 to February 18. It is estimated that there will be 79.6 million passengers in the Yangtze River Delta, a year-on-year increase of 4.6 million. That means 1.99 million passengers need to be transported each day.

The passenger traffic volume ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year is expected to be 31.5 million, a rise of 1.9 million year-on-year; the volume after the festival is projected to be 48.1 million, up by 2.7 million year-on-year.

However, long-distance travel has actually begun for some, as people’s travel from Yangtze River Delta cities to Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing already started around January 1.

As the Spring Festival of 2020 comes earlier than usual, it is also expected that the passenger flow will extend to the end of February.

During the holiday week, people usually travel for family visits or tourism. Based on previous statistics, a tourism peak to Xiamen and other coastal cities will emerge on around January 26 (the second day of the first lunar month).

As the circumstances may require, the railway authorities will make adjustments according to the change of the passenger flow. As of January 3, a total of 3,282 trains have been arranged for train coupling by the Shanghai Railway Bureau for Chunyun 2020, with over 1.8 million seats added.

It is reported that from December 12 to January 2, a total of 3.09 million railway tickets have been sold across the country.

(Photos/whb.cn)