China's Spring Festival railway transportation volumes hit a new record on Saturday.

About 3.74 million passengers boarded trains across the country, 510,000 more than last year, according to the Ministry of Railways. 549 extra trains were deployed to transport passengers, 108 more than last year.

At Beijing West Railway Station, 167,000 people boarded trains, an increase of 39 percent from last year. At Shanghai Railway Station, passenger numbers reached 169,000, while Guangzhou reported 198,000 travelers, according to statistics from the Ministry.

By 4 PM on Saturday, railway lines affected by heavy snowfall on Thursday in central China had almost resumed normal operations.

"But the railway transportation network still needs one or two days to recover," Yao Hongren from Beijing West Railway Station told The Beijing News.

Since passenger numbers are expected to climb even further over the next few days, Yao said that the red emergency scheme will continue at Beijing West until January 28, the last day of the year on the lunar calendar, which indicates that passengers will be allowed into the waiting hall only six hours before departure time.

Seventeen passenger trains heading for Shanghai along the Longhai Railway, which runs from Gansu Province to Shanghai, were seriously delayed due to heavy snowfall in central China, leaving at least 20,000 passengers still stranded at the Shanghai Railway Station as of yesterday afternoon.

The railway administration has partly opened its underground parking garage and ticket office to receive the huge number of affected passengers.

According to Fan Qing, an official with Shanghai Railway Station, only four of the 17 delayed trains heading for Shanghai have rescheduled their departure times.

Services have been opened to allow passengers to get refunds on their tickets.

It will still take some time to relieve the pressure of stranded passengers before the extreme peak transportation period, which is estimated to be on January 26, Fan said.

(China Daily January 23, 2006)