(Yicai) Jan. 10 -- China State Railway Group said it expects to achieve a record transportation revenue of CNY1 trillion (USD139.5 billion) this year.

China Railway will likely transport nearly 3.9 billion passengers and over 3.9 billion tons of cargo in 2024, achieving transport revenue of CNY1 trillion, up 3.7 percent from last year, the state-owned firm announced yesterday.

This year, China Railway will speed up the transition of railway freight to modern logistics, stick to green development, advance the goals of carbon dioxide emission peak and carbon neutrality in the railway sector, and strive to put over 1,000 kilometers of new rail tracks into operation, the Beijing-based company added.

China Railway transported nearly 3.7 billion passengers with a daily peak of 20 million last year, logging transport revenue of CNY964.1 billion (USD134.5 billion), up 39 percent from the previous year, according to data the firm released yesterday. All three figures set new records.

China’s fixed asset investment in the railway sector rose 7.5 percent to CNY764.5 billion last year from the year before. Some 3,637 km of new rail tracks were put into operation in 2023, 2,776 km of which were high-speed rails. As of Dec. 31, China had 159,000 km of railways, including 45,000 km of high-speed ones.

China will continue to add new normal and high-speed rail tracks at high speed in the next two years to continue providing strong support for railway investment, Sinolink Securities said. Investment in transportation will grow over 10 percent a year on average in the next two years, according to the 14th Five-Year plans of different Chinese administrative regions.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione