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(Yicai) Jan. 3 -- China’s fixed-asset investment in the rail system may fall 31 percent this year from last year, according to the state-owned company that operates passenger and freight transport services in the country.
Fixed-asset investment in railroad infrastructure may reach CNY590 billion (USD80.8 billion) this year, compared with CNY850.6 billion (USD116.5 billion) last year, China State Railway Group said in an annual data report released yesterday. The Beijing-based firm also confirmed plans to open 2,600 kilometers of new train tracks this year.
China's rail transport system is one of the world's largest. The country continues to improve its rail infrastructure and aims to expand the high-speed network to around 60,000 km by 2030 from 48,000 km at the end of last year.
Rail passenger numbers rose 11 percent last year to a record 4.08 billion, with the figure expected to climb further this year to 4.28 billion, while rail freight rose for the eighth straight year, rising 1.9 percent to 3.99 billion tons. That could reach 4.03 billion tons this year.
Freight trains plying the China-Europe route completed 19,000 trips in 2024, a 10 percent annual increase, while the number of twenty-foot equivalent units transported rose 9 percent to 2.07 million, according to official figures.
Editor: Martin Kadiev