Aerial photo taken on January 8, 2020 shows high speed trains after maintaining in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province. The 2020 Spring Festival travel rush, known as Chunyun, will start on January 10. Photo:Xinhua

About 3 billion trips are expected during the 40-day Chinese New Year travel rush that starts Friday, slightly more than last year, according to data released by seven government agencies at a press conference on Thursday.

This year's Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, falls on January 25, and the travel rush, or chunyun, lasts until February 18, Zhao Chenxin, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters in Beijing.

Zhao revealed that 8,489 kilometers of new railway, including 5,474 kilometers of high-speed rail, entered operation in 2019, connecting up poverty-stricken areas, old revolutionary base areas and migrant worker areas.

Some 440 million rail trips are expected to be made during this year's travel rush, 8 percent higher than last year, Yan Hexiang, chief engineer and spokesperson for the National Railway Administration, told media.

There were no reports of any travelers with the unnamed pneumonia detected in Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei Province, said officials from the country's civil aviation and railway regulators, but they would remain alert and keep in close communication with the country's medical authorities.

To ensure passenger safety and reduce the risk of epidemics during the festival travel season, the Ministry of Transport has laid down "sound preparations" to strengthen disinfection, monitoring and prevention measures at transport hubs with a larger traveler population, chief engineer Wang Yang of the Ministry of Transport told the media at the conference. 

Experts have identified the pneumonia as caused by a new type of coronavirus and obtained its genome sequence, China Central Television  reported on Thursday morning.  

Meanwhile air trips are expected to reach 79 million this Spring Festival, up 8.4 percent and a new high, said Wan Xiangdong, chief flight officer of China's Civil Aviation Administration. 

Nearby international destinations like Japan, South Korea and Thailand are among the most popular with travelers during the festive travel season, Wan said. 

More than 17,000 daily flights are scheduled, 13 percent higher than last year, he said.

Railway authorities have opened up extra e-ticket services at 957 stations across the country.

In 2019, work concluded to remove toll stations for highways at provincial boundaries, two years ahead of schedule, with users of electronic toll collection (ETC) exceeding 200 million and an ETC usage rate of 70 percent. 

Global Times