Passengers undergo border checks at the departure hall of Terminal 2 at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Jan 26, 2025. [Photo/VCG]
Shanghai witnessed a huge surge in travelers during the just-concluded Spring Festival travel rush, with a total of 46.92 million people on the move, a year-on-year increase of 4 percent.
A total of 30.69 million trips were made by rail, a year-on-year increase of 3 percent, and 14.95 million were made by air, up 9 percent. The growth was driven by multiple factors, including China’s visa-free policies and booming Spring Festival tourism. Passenger throughput at the Pudong International Airport jumped 13 percent over the same period last year.
During the 40-day travel rush, which began on Jan 14, daily average intra-city public transportation ridership reached 13.63 million, up 1 percent year-on-year. Among passengers, 8.62 million traveled by metro, 2.56 million by bus, 465,000 by taxi, and 1.91 million by online ride-hailing platforms.
Expressways remained the top choice among drivers of personal cars, with 1.29 million vehicles on the road daily, a 2-percent increase year-on-year.
Jan 25 was the busiest day of the travel rush, with 1.04 million people on the move, a 16-percent increase over last year’s highest-traffic day. Return-trip passenger traffic experienced a prolonged fluctuation period, with peak traffic reaching 1.06 million passengers on Feb 4. Both figures were new records for the Spring Festival travel rush.
The opening of Shanghai Songjiang Railway Station and the upgrading of the Shanghai South Railway Station have alleviated transportation pressure on Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, which registered a record daily peak of 424,000 passengers.
Source: “shanghaifabu” WeChat account
,https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-Latest-WhatsNew/20250226/f10fe1cc9a0c4a1c8ecb5911143ae865.html