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China

China reports record 4.13 billion rail passenger trips in January-October

2026-11-15

Archival photograph of a Chinese CRH train on a viaduct, illustrating rail travel rather than this year's passenger-count announcement.

China's railway network handled 4.13 billion passenger trips in the first ten months of 2026, a 4.7 percent increase from the same period a year earlier and a record for January-October. China State Railway Group released the figures on Saturday, reporting growth in capacity, tourism trains and international travel. Passenger trips count journeys, not 4.13 billion different people.

An average of 11,670 passenger trains operated each day during the ten-month period, up 5 percent year on year. On 1 October, the first day of the National Day holiday, the system recorded 25.2 million passenger trips and operated 14,885 trains. The operator said both daily passenger volume and transport capacity reached records that day.

Tourism and cross-border services expand

Rail authorities operated 3,236 dedicated tourism trains and a further 1,084 special services linked to concerts, sporting events, exhibitions and study tours. The programme connects rail transport with visitor spending and events in the places served, rather than relying only on conventional point-to-point journeys.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed route carried 29.23 million cross-border passengers, up 11 percent, while the China-Laos Railway handled 289,000 cross-border passengers, up 33 percent. Separately, foreign passengers made 22.52 million trips across the national rail network, an increase of 32.9 percent. These series measure different categories and should not be added as if they were mutually exclusive groups.

At the end of 2025, China had 165,000 kilometres of operating railway, including more than 50,000 kilometres of high-speed lines. The high-speed network is projected to reach 70,000 kilometres by 2035 under an eight-north-south and eight-east-west corridor framework. That remains a future network target, distinct from the trips already completed this year.

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