Record Breaking Passenger Flow During China’s May Day Holiday

The “May Day” holiday in mainland China will start tomorrow. According to local media reports, the National Railway Group pointed out that it is expected to send 15.95 million passengers today (28th), and plans to operate 10,848 passenger trains. Tomorrow is expected to be the peak day of passenger flow, with more than 19 million passengers expected, more than 10% higher than the peak day in history.

According to the report, during the transportation period of the May Day holiday this year, the national railways are expected to send 120 million passengers, an increase of 20% over the same period in 2019, exceeding the highest level in the same period in history, and sending an average of 15 million passengers per day.

The news that has attracted the most attention this year also includes Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station’s announcement this morning that all tickets to all stations across the country are sold out today. The Shanghai Railway Station also advises passengers to buy tickets in advance before traveling, and not to enter the station blindly to avoid long queues and may not be able to buy tickets in the end.

According to the Shanghai media, since the opening of the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway in 1908 in the late Qing Dynasty, except for some special time periods during the Second World War, it is suspected that for the first time in a single day, all train tickets for all stations in the country in Shanghai have been sold out. .

Even during the Spring Festival travel period in the past few decades, there will be vacancies in stations in some areas. During the May Day period in 2023, even the tickets for Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, and Ningbo will be sold out. According to the report, the strength of China’s economic recovery this year can be seen from the empty tickets.

The 2023 railway “May Day” holiday transportation period is from April 27 to May 4, a total of 8 days. According to the previous transportation plan forecast, within 8 days, Shanghai Railway Station is expected to send 3.82 million passengers, with an average of 478,000 passengers per day.

Judging from the passenger flow forecast data, the passenger flow will be highly concentrated on April 28, April 29 and April 30, and the return passenger flow will peak on May 3.

According to the air ticket booking data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on the 21st, the number of bookings for this year’s May Day holiday exceeded 6 million, and the market heat has returned to the same period as in 2019, that is, the level before the outbreak of the new crown epidemic. May Day 2019goldThe week is 5/1~5/4, a total of four days, and this year’s May Day in ChinagoldThe week is 4/29~5/3 with 5 days in total.