Passenger turnover by railway in China 2009-2023

In 2023, railway passenger turnover in China amounted to about 1473 billion passenger kilometers. The volume of railway passenger transport is calculated from the product of the number of passengers and the distance traveled in kilometers. 

The rail system in China

 As of 2023, the total operating length of rail network in China amounted to 159,000 kilometers. Since the availability of resources varies greatly throughout China, the railways play an essential role in dealing with the allocation of resources. Among regions with extended rail network, Inner Mongolia has the longest railroad network in China with over 14,000 kilometers in 2022.

Rail passengers

 Like many countries without budget airlines, most Chinese rely primarily on the rail to move around the country. As the rail network keeps growing, such as the expanding high-speed rail (HSR) network, the number of train passengers in China is increasing in parallel until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number peaked at 3.66 billion in 2019 before dropping sharply to 1.67 billion in 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel. While more people prefer to travel by train, the average annual transport distance of rail passengers had decreased by more than 100 kilometers in the last decade. Regional-wise, the provinces of Hunan, Guangdong, and Henan had the highest rail passenger turnover among all regions in China.