China's passenger trips surge in first 3 quarters

The photo taken on Sept. 5 shows a subway train adorned with the 19th Asian Games elements in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China's railway, waterway and civil aviation passenger traffic levels all soared by more than 100 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2023, the Ministry of Transport said Thursday.

The country's inter-regional passenger traffic rose 31 percent year on year to 45.66 billion from January to September, the ministry's spokesperson Sun Wenjian told a press conference.

Among all types of transport, civil aviation trips rocketed 126.7 percent year on year, followed by 120.9 percent waterway trip growth and a 112.4 percent rise in railway trips, while road trips increased by 26.8 percent, Sun said.

During this period, commercial cargo transport went up 7.1 percent year on year to 40.31 billion tonnes, while cargo throughput at China's ports increased by 8.5 percent to 12.54 billion tonnes, the spokesperson added.

Fixed-asset investment in transport reached 2.88 trillion yuan (about 401.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, marking 5.6 percent year-on-year growth, according to Sun.

Sun said the country's transport sector had continued to recover steadily in the first three quarters, providing a solid and powerful transport service and a guarantee for promoting the economy's reasonable growth.