SCIO briefing on its white paper on the development of China's transport
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 29, 2016
Yang Chuantang:
Please allow me to express my view on this issue. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the express delivery industry has been growing by more than 40 percent annually. During an inspection tour, Premier Li Keqiang said the industry had become a "dark horse" in China's economic development. In my view, the "dark horse" needs to keep up its momentum, so as to play a bigger role in lowering costs and serving the people.
Reuters:
I'm from Reuters. I just want to ask a question about restrictions on overloaded trucks. China [introduced] new regulations last September; however, this month, Jilin Province relaxed these regulations allowing truck drivers to overload their trucks by several tons because of blockages in the supply system. How is this policy playing out so far, and has it affected or put more pressure on the railway system as well?
Yang Chuantang:
It has been 12 years since China began to deal with this overloading issue. In that time, we have seen achievement as well as some setbacks. Since September this year, we organized the related departments to set up new standards and measures. In Henan Province, for instance, after two years of work, its overload rate has been cut to just three percent. And some other provinces may have similar low rates. Admittedly, there are regional imbalances -- some provinces may have tight regulations while others are not so strict. You raised the question about the different standards in different provinces and in different time periods, which we have noticed and are currently working on. We will, and must, follow the standards for the sake of safety and the sound development of road infrastructure. Much needs to be done in dealing with overloading, and we must accelerate our work. Thank you.
Phoenix TV:
The 2017 Spring Festival travel rush is around the corner. Train tickets for Chinese New Year's Eve are on sale today if I'm not mistaken. The Ministry of Transport pledged as early as 2009 to increase the transport capacity to resolve the difficulty of buying tickets during peak periods. However, people are still complaining about the difficulty of getting a ticket. Another thing is that the number of regular trains, express trains (T trains) and direct express trains (Z trains) is decreasing, which many people have been complaining about. Regarding high-speed railways, those in east China, especially the Beijing-Shanghai line, is making profits. But in central and west China, high-speed railways, for instance the Zhengzhou-Xi'an line, is still far from making a profit despite being launched in 2010 -- earlier than Beijing-Shanghai. We don't know when these lines will begin making profits. Therefore, people are also talking about whether it's necessary to modify the ideas behind building high-speed railways. Will there be any changes? Thank you.
Yang Chuantang:
You talked about two problems. One is the difficulty of getting tickets during the Spring Festival travel rush and the other is the regional imbalance in the train system. This year's travel rush begins earlier than usual, and will experience record traffic volume and greater demand. We expect the coming Spring Festival will see 2.978 billion passenger journeys, 2.2 percent up year on year.
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