China's railways transported a record 42 million passengers during the May "Golden Week", 4.2 million more than last year, Chinese Ministry of Railways said on Monday.

The crowds of passengers exerted great pressure on the country's railway sector. According to the ministry, a total of 2,250 temporary trains were put into service during the holiday, 1,590 more than last year.

It also arranged 128 special tourism trains to ease travel pressure between major scenic spots.

Tourism has been a major way for Chinese people to enjoy their week-long holiday since China began its first full week holiday to celebrate National Day in October 1999.

But the travel peak during golden holidays has also made train tickets hard to come by due to China's limited railway transport capacity.

Railway experts said China's limited railway transport capacity has hindered national economic growth in recent years.

To boost the country's transport sector and inject new life into the national economy, the Chinese government has made it clear in the 11th five-year plan that priority will be given to the transport sector, especially the rail sector.

Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun said early this year that a comprehensive railway network is expected to be in place by 2010, with a number of high-speed railway lines to be built soon.

The railway network will include the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, the Beijing-Guangzhou railway, the Beijing-Harbin railway and other railway lines which run at a speed of between 200 km/h and 300 km/h.

A grid-shape inter-city track network between major cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities is also expected to be built in the next five years.

The ministry hopes the railway network will cover 70 percent of China's major cities with a population of over 500,000 in ten years, which will benefit more than 700 million Chinese travelers.

In addition, the ministry also plans to build a number of major freight railway corridors between China's major economic circles in the next five years. And a series of coal transport arteries around China's ten major coal bases will also be built in the future.

Industry insiders said the expansion of railways in China will help ease travel pressure during holidays. In addition, the appearance of major freight railway corridors in the future will also help solve the transport bottleneck amid the rapid economic growth in China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2006)