Shanghai Railway Station is seeing a ridership increase, with the start of the festival peak travel period nearly a week away.

Shanghai Railway Administration, which controls rail transportation in the city and four neighboring provinces, said it is planning to add 134 trains to its daily fleet of more than 400 to prepare for increased traffic during the peak period surrounding the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Administration officials said they expect to handle 20.8 million passengers during the upcoming Spring Festival travel period, an increase of 467,000 riders, or 2.3 per-cent, from the same period last year.

The 40-day period, which starts next Monday and ends on March 8, encompasses the traditional Chinese Lunar New Year, which will fall on February 12 this year.

"To expand capacity and upgrade our fleet, we have invested 380 million yuan (US$45.8 million) so far to introduce new trains, and spent another 7.5 million yuan in fleet maintenance," said Lu Dongfu, director of the administration. "In addition, we have for the first time borrowed a total of 52 trains - 32 before the festival and 20 afterwards - from other administrations to prepare for the 40-day travel peak."

Railway stations in the city and four neighboring provinces will be able to handle 600,000 people a day, the administration said, predicting that February 9, three days ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, will see a record high of 640,000 riders.

Shanghai's three railway stations alone will likely move 3.95 million passengers during the period, an average of nearly 100,000 a day, an increase of 3.2 percent over the same period last year.

Some 73 temporary trains will be added to the regular schedule and a total of 303 trains will be introduced into service during the period.

Railway officials expect that February 4-10 will see the heaviest traffic in Shanghai, with daily passenger volume leaving the city exceeding 140,000.

The city has taken several steps to ensure smooth operations at the stations during the peak period. For instance, the number of staffed ticket windows has been increased from 150 to 165 at the Shanghai Railway Station.

The city's airports also expect to be busy during the period.

China Eastern Airlines will have 68 airplanes in service with weekly capacity of 340,000 passengers, while Shanghai Airlines will have some 23 aircraft, able to carry 114,000 people each week.

During the period, China Eastern will arrange 20 Shanghai-Hong Kong flights daily. Shanghai Airlines will double its flights to Macau to six a day from February 8 to 12.

Meanwhile, the two carriers plan to increase their domestic and international air routes to deal with the rise in demand during the period.

(eastday.com January 22, 2002)