Spring Festival Travel Rush to Start on January 11th

The Chinese Ministry of Railways says the 2009 Spring Festival travel season will be from January 11th to February 25th.

Wang Yongping, spokesman of the ministry, said on Monday that the 40-day travel season will span the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on January 26th, and the Lantern Festival on February 9th.

He said the overall passenger flow is expected to hit 188 million, up 8% year on year. And the average passenger flow is expected to be 4.7 million every day, 340,000 more than the same period in 2008.

"During the Spring Festival travel season of 2009, flows of college students, migrant workers and travellers will overlap before the lunar new year, making the passenger peak come early. After the spring festival, migrant workers may travel back a little bit earlier. But the whole situation of passenger flow is still unclear, given that college students may travel back in the end of the travel season because the new semester begins later."

During the travel rush, the railway department will put into use 319 pairs of additional nonstop passenger trains. It has also prepared three operating schemes to deal with regular, peak and sudden passenger flows.