Since the beginning of this year, China's railway construction has maintained strong momentum, with a large number of major projects accelerating, new high-speed rail developments continuing, and the overall functions of the railway network further improved. At the same time, the monthly volume of China-Europe freight trains hit a new record high, the shift from road to rail gained good momentum, and railway passenger and freight transport capacity was further enhanced, providing strong support for promoting the sustained recovery and improvement of China's economy and safeguarding the production and livelihood of the people.

　　Project construction accelerates

　　On June 4, the continuous girder of the Jintian cross-Pingwu Expressway bridge of the Liuzhou-Wuzhou Railway Section 4 project, undertaken by China Railway Shanghai Engineering Group, was closed 15 days ahead of schedule, opening the passage for T-girder erection of the cross-Pingwu Expressway grand bridge. This marked a breakthrough in the project's construction and laid a solid foundation for subsequent work.

　　At 14:15 on June 15, freight train No. 52738 successfully passed the Laohe River grand bridge on the border between Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Liaoning Province. Li Guangwei, chief engineer of the Beijing-Tongliao Railway project of China Railway 22nd Bureau, said this marked the successful completion of bridge replacement on the Chaoyangdi-Tongliao section of the Beijing-Tongliao Railway, raising the speed limit from 60 km/h to 100 km/h and laying a solid foundation for the full-speed operation of China's third railway trunk line from North China to Northeast China.

　　A responsible person from the Development and Reform Department of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. said that since the beginning of this year, the group has fully leveraged the pulling role of railway construction investment, advanced key railway projects with high quality, implemented in depth a batch of projects to connect, complete and strengthen the network, and strengthened control over safety, quality, investment and environmental protection, maintaining a sound momentum in railway construction.

　　Since May, the Yanjiagou-Yuhuangmiao connecting line of the Haoji Railway has been put into operation, achieving interconnection between the Haoji Railway and the Baoxi Railway, two major coal transport corridors; the Desheng Tunnel, a controlling project on the Zhenjiangguan-Huangshengguan section of the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway, has been holed through; track laying has been completed on the Meizhou-Longchuan high-speed railway, track laying has started on the Jining-Datong-Yuanping high-speed railway, all tunnels on the Wuhan-Yichang section of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu high-speed railway have been holed through, and a number of key projects have made important progress, including the Ma'anshan Yangtze River road-rail bridge of the Chaohu-Ma'anshan intercity railway and the Jintang subsea tunnel of the Ningbo-Zhoushan railway.

　　Railway construction has not only accelerated but also markedly improved in quality. On June 5, the Hangzhou-Wenzhou high-speed railway conducted a speed test at the highest test level on the basis of earlier step-by-step speed-increase joint commissioning and testing, and the test train successfully reached the target test speed of 385 km/h. Wang Shengli, deputy manager of the four-electric (communication, signaling, power supply and electrification) project of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou high-speed railway of China Railway Electrification Bureau, said the project extensively adopted intelligent tooling and equipment such as catenary laser measuring instruments, cantilever offset measuring instruments and intelligent inspection vehicles, greatly improving precision and significantly enhancing construction quality and efficiency.

　　Data show that in the first five months of this year, China's railways completed fixed asset investment of 228.47 billion yuan, up 10.8% year on year. "Next, China State Railway Group will focus on serving major regional development strategies, give full play to its pioneering role, advance railway planning and construction with high quality, continuously improve the connectivity of railway infrastructure, enhance the overall functions and benefits of the railway network, and make positive contributions to consolidating and strengthening the momentum of economic recovery and improvement," said a responsible person from the group's Development and Reform Department.

　　High-speed rail upgraded and sped up

　　Recently, the technical upgrade version of the Fuxing intelligent EMU was completed and put into operation on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway on June 15. Compared with the original train, this train has larger space, more seats and further optimized service functions.

　　A responsible person from the Locomotive and Rolling Stock Department of China State Railway Group said that since 2023, the group has led railway research institutes and equipment manufacturing enterprises in carrying out technical upgrades to the CR400 Fuxing intelligent EMU, developing technical upgrade versions in 8-car and 17-car formations. By adopting lightweight and noise-reduction technologies and measures such as equipment integration and layout optimization, the train has further expanded passenger space, increased passenger capacity, added second-class seats and total seating capacity, and doubled the space of the large luggage storage area.

　　Along with the launch of the upgraded Fuxing, the entire Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway began high-standard operation at 350 km/h on June 15, further improving transport quality. The Wuhan-Guangzhou section of the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway has been fully built into a safety-standard demonstration line, and the entire Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway now operates Fuxing EMU trains at a high standard of 350 km/h, with overall transport capacity increased by 4.2%. The fastest travel times from Beijing West and Wuhan to Guangzhou South are 7 hours 16 minutes and 3 hours 17 minutes respectively, reduced by 22 minutes and 23 minutes.

　　A responsible person from the Passenger Transport Department of China State Railway Group said that since the beginning of this year, the group has actively adapted to the situation of China's sustained economic recovery and improvement and accelerating population flows, accelerated the building of a modern railway transport service system, scientifically and rationally arranged transport capacity, and implemented measures to facilitate and benefit the people, effectively ensuring safe and orderly passenger travel and actively supporting high-quality economic and social development.

　　Data show that from January to May this year, China's railways carried 1.73 billion passengers, up 20.2% year on year, with safe, stable and orderly transport.

　　While ensuring transport capacity, railway departments have continuously optimized service quality. They have made good use of functions such as waitlist ticket purchase, online seat selection, pre-filling of ticket purchase information and subscription notifications for ticket sales on Railway 12306, accommodated the travel needs of both long-distance and short- and medium-distance passengers, optimized ticketing strategies and improved the ticket purchasing experience; actively promoted new ticket services such as multi-ride tickets, periodical tickets and tourist packages, with multi-ride and periodical tickets now covering 60 lines and tourist packages covering 11 lines; and the Railway Smooth Travel Code now covers all EMU trains, with convenient transfers available at 120 stations nationwide and internet meal ordering services at 80 stations, giving passengers a better travel experience.

　　Freight volume and quality rise together

　　On June 12, a China-Europe freight train carrying 290 commercial vehicles departed from the Shaliang Logistics Park of China Railway Hohhot Group Co., Ltd., heading for Moscow. This was Inner Mongolia's newly launched China-Europe freight train for domestically produced commercial vehicles this year.

　　"In the past, automobile exports usually went by road, taking 25 to 30 days, but now transport via China-Europe freight trains takes only 12 days," said Chen Xiaoguang, deputy general manager of Inner Mongolia Sinotrans Bonded Logistics Co., Ltd. "The launch of the dedicated automobile export train provides us with a new overseas shipping option featuring low overall cost and high transport efficiency."

　　At 11:18 on April 26, a China-Europe freight train fully loaded with agricultural products departed from the Urumqi Sanping Container Center Station, exited through the Horgos railway port and arrived at its destination, Salerno, Italy, with a total journey of about 10,000 kilometers. The smooth operation of the China-Europe freight train with a full timetable on the southern corridor from Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, to Salerno, Italy, marked the successful operation of the southern overseas corridor route of Xinjiang's China-Europe freight trains across the "two seas," providing strong support for building a golden corridor between Asia and Europe and a bridgehead for opening up to the west, and for promoting the high-quality economic development of Xinjiang.

　　Since the beginning of this year, railway departments have made good use of domestic and international coordination mechanisms, strengthened the construction of China-Europe freight train corridors and transport organization, continuously expanded the categories of goods, and maintained strong growth in volume, better serving China-Europe economic and trade exchanges. According to statistics, in May this year, a total of 1,724 China-Europe freight trains were operated, carrying 186,000 TEUs of goods, up 14% and 13% year on year respectively, setting a new record high for monthly volume.

　　While strengthening external railway connectivity, the quality of domestic railway freight transport has also improved.

　　On the morning of June 8, a container express freight train fully loaded with auto parts sounded its whistle and departed from the Tianjin Container Center Station under China Railway Beijing Group, heading for Chengxiang Station in Chengdu. The operation of this train has created a fast, efficient, green and environmentally friendly new logistics channel between Tianjin and Chengdu, which will strongly promote the shift from road to rail in the Tianjin area and optimize the transport structure.

　　Mou Congkai, manager of the Marketing Department of the Tianjin Railway Logistics Center, told reporters that this train adopts a fast transport organization model of "rapid pickup by local shuttle locomotives at the origin plus direct through transport en route," shortening railway transport time from 10 days in the past to 3 days at present, greatly reducing the delivery deadline for goods and effectively improving the cargo turnover rate of enterprises.

　　Since the beginning of this year, the shift from road to rail in the transport industry has achieved remarkable results. The transport authorities have given play to the role of 40 railway logistics centers nationwide, promoted the shift from road to rail through market-based means, strengthened "headquarters-to-headquarters" cooperation, optimized freight product design, strengthened full-chain logistics management, and worked hard to reduce overall logistics costs and support the development of the real economy. They have accelerated the construction of dedicated railway lines and logistics bases, opened up the "first kilometer" and "last kilometer," reduced intermediate links, improved transport efficiency and ensured the delivery deadlines of goods. They have strengthened the organization of port-dredging transport; in May, the national railway loaded an average of 33,600 cars per day at ports, up 15.4% year on year.

　　A responsible person from the Freight Transport Department of China State Railway Group said that the group has fully leveraged the advantages of the nationwide railway network and centralized unified dispatching and command, comprehensively deepened market-oriented reform of freight transport, accelerated the building of a modern railway logistics system, carefully organized cargo transport, and continuously improved railway freight capacity and service quality, providing reliable transport guarantees for economic and social development.