China to ensure safety as annual travel rush begins

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China's central authorities have highlighted travel safety as the nation on Sunday officially kicked off the world's largest holiday migration, a time in which mass numbers of passengers will be homeward bound for the traditional Chinese Spring Festival.

Safe travel has emerged as a hot-button issue facing the government as passenger trips during the 40-day travel peak are expected to hit a record high of over 3 billion.

Liu Tienan, vice chief of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, told the press on Sunday that passenger transport during the period is not looking good as the enormous migration outweighs existing transportation capacities.

Liu warned of the likelihood of heavy snow and icy rain that could hamper travel while vowing greater efforts to avoid another travel disaster, as was seen in early 2008 when unprecedented heavy snow and freezing rain inundated the south of the country, bringing traffic to a standstill during the peak holiday season.

A total of 3.16 billion passenger trips are expected during the next 40 days, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, of which, 235 million trips will be made via the country's railways, up 6.1 percent year-on-year.

Hu Yadong, vice minister of railways, said a daily average of 5.88 million people will make train trips during the period, 340,000 more than the corresponding period in 2011.

At the Beijing Railway Station on Sunday, staff members checked passengers' train tickets and ID cards, as an ID-based train ticket purchasing system kicked off nationwide at the start of the new year in an effort to curb ticket scalping.

Hu said that to ensure safety, railway departments have stepped up the checks and maintenance of trains and railways, and they have drawn up contingency plans to cope with accidents and extreme weather conditions.

Hu said safety checks will continue to be conducted each night for bullet trains and high-speed rails to ensure safety even though he admitted high-speed trains will offer a longer service period in the night to meet the rising travel demand. "But safety will come first," he said.

Meanwhile, Liu Tienan urged more inspections on the operations of the nation's general transportation system and enhanced coordination between different government units to address travel challenges.

He Jianzhong, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport (MOT), also said during the press conference Sunday that the MOT had sent five inspection teams to carry out safety checks in 20 provincial-level regions prior to the start of the spring travel rush, known as "chunyun" in Chinese.

Local authorities have made nearly 13,000 contingency plans for coping with emergencies. Meanwhile, both professional and amateur rescue teams have been put in place, according to Wang Dexue, vice chief of the State Administration of Work Safety.

Wang also ordered local authorities to enhance inspections over the transportation of dangerous goods, including fireworks and chemicals.

China's civil aviation regulator said it has given the green light for domestic airlines to add 14,000 flights to meet massive passenger flow during the peak travel season.

Xia Xinghua, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said a coordination system between airlines, airports and aviation regulators has been set up to ensure the smooth and safe running of flights in case of freezing rain or heavy snow.

The traditional Chinese Spring Festival, or "chunjie" in Chinese, is the country's most important festival. It falls on Jan. 23 this year.