CRI听力:Chunyun Travel Rush Reaches Peak

Beijing Railway authority estimate that 950-thousand people are heading out of Beijing on Thursday.

Tens of thousands of passengers were seen holding their luggage and backpacks waiting to board trains in the Beijing West Railway Station.

Same as every year, students, migrant workers, and visiting relatives make up the majority of this crowd.

But what's different is that many of these holiday travelers are choosing high-speed trains to get home.

"It's easy to get tickets, seats are comfortable, management and services are good."

"Tidy in the cabin, services are good and so is the food quality…"

"The train is fast and the tickets are easier to purchase."

Railway authorities continue to add new high-speed trains to cope with the rising demand.

31 new routes will be added to the operation in Beijing on Thursday alone.

Ye Kuankuan with the Beijing railway bureau explains how this works.

"To relive the pressure, so far, 2098 trains are under dispatch command. Another 734 high-speed routes are added to the railway network, which means there are 2832 high-speed trains operating nationwide."

He says the authorities are ready to add even more trains if needed.

Beijing West Railway Station conductor Yi Shuxia says new counters and ticket vending machines are being added as well, to help all passengers get their tickets as soon as possible.

"There are 89 ticket vending machines at the Beijing West Railway Station. We shut all these vending functions so they can be used as pick-up machines only. By doing so, we are able to make sure all passengers get the tickets they preordered online. We also added new counters to those who want to purchase tickets. Our staff are trying to help them buy tickets faster."

Maintenance and repair crews in Beijing are also in position to examine the trains and eliminate safety hazard.

Beijing railway authorities have also made preparation to deal with bad weather, if any problems should arise, and have published contingency plans to handle any emergencies.

Dubbed as the "biggest annual human migration on earth," 2.9 billion trips are expected this year over the 40-day Chunyun period, an increase of 3.6 percent from last year.

For CRI, I'm Min Rui.