Given that China downgraded the management of COVID-19 from a Class A infectious disease to Class B, more people chose to return home to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit.

According to the data released by12306 China Railway, a platform offering services including purchase, endorsement, refund of tickets and change of destination for tickets, during the Spring Festival travel rush in 2023, 11 cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and Changsha, were on the list of popular departure and arrival cities. 

Among them, Changsha in Hunan Province was listed as one of the popular departures and one of the popular destinations respectively, and the route between Guangzhou and Changsha, the route between Shenzhen and Changsha, etc. also became popular during the Spring Festival holiday.

“On January 28, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, the number of tickets sold on a single day reached 13.25 million, the highest day since the Spring Festival this year.” Yan Zhiyuan, head of the technical services department of the Science and Technology Center of 12306 China Railway, said that according to the ticket data, travel demand for tourism, visiting relatives and work has increased to varying degrees. The “inventory” of ticket will change in real time with the combination of departure and arrival places, and the amount of data and calculation is geometrically increasing.

It was learned from China Railway Guangzhou Group that in order to meet the travel demand of passengers, Hunan Railway continued to increase the nighttime high-speed railway operation during the Spring Festival travel rush. 

From the beginning of the Spring Festival travel rush on January 7 to February 7, Hunan opened 237 additional night high speed trains, carrying 98,000 passengers. After the Spring Festival until February 8, Hunan ran six special trains with 5,304 people returning to work, taking multiple measures to help migrant workers.

According to the passenger transport department of China Railway Guangzhou Group, the current work flow, student flow and tourist flow are highly overlapping, and the travel demand of passengers is strong. 

In order to meet the travel needs of the passengers, the railway department scientifically draws the train running chart, fully exploits the transport potential and prepares sufficient capacity in the popular direction. 

1,354.5 pairs of trains were operated by China Railway Guangzhou Group on February 12, of which 72.5 pairs of trains (including 54.5 pairs of D-series high-speed train) were added, mainly in the direction of Guangzhou and Shenzhen from Changsha and Chaoshan area, and in the direction of Changsha from Huaihua, Shaoyang and Yongzhou.