A bullet train stops at Beijing North Railway Station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway line in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin)

China State Railway Group said its operating results in 2020 were better than expected amid the epidemic and its revenue is almost the same with one year earlier. 

The group realized an operating income of 1.134 trillion yuan ($175 billion), of which transportation income was 650.1 billion yuan, and the cargo delivery volume was 3.58 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.1 percent, the group said in a release sent to the Global Times. 

The group reported its revenue in 2019 rise 3.6 percent year on year to 1.13 trillion yuan, the company said in its annual report, according to Xinhua News Agency in April last year.

China railway said it plans to carry 3.11 billion passengers in 2021, compared with 2.16 billion passengers last year.

The railway group in 2020 undertook fixed asset investment of 781.9 billion yuan, an increase of 71.9 billion yuan from the plan made at the beginning of the year, it said. 

The group has currently 20 new projects underway including the project of the Ya'an-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway started construction on November 8.

The proportion of railway freight volume as a total of all freight transport increased from 7.7 percent in 2016 to 9.9 percent in 2020, the group said. 

Railway operating mileage increased from 121,000 kilometers at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) to 146,300 kilometers at the end of 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), an increase of 20.9 percent, and the high-speed rail increased from 19,800 kilometers to 37,900 kilometers, which nearly doubled, the group noted.

Chinese railways now lead the world in new technology, particular in extreme cold or alpine conditions, with high-speed and heavy-haul rail freight also at the cutting edge of the global industry. Intelligent high-speed railway technology has achieved fully self-dependent. The Fuxing series of bullet trains with speeds ranging from 160 kilometers to 350 kilometers per hour have all been put into operation during 2020, the company said.

Railway informatization has been further improved in the past year. Research on the technologies of 5G network usage on railways was launched and China's main railway data center ran with not reported errors, and this year it will further advance the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and Internet of Things across China's rail network.

China Railway said it will further promote the application of new technologies, new materials and new processes, to produce low maintenance equipment and facilities.

It will advance the implementation of key national special projects such as the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, and build innovation center, and strengthen research on key technologies with an eye toward future innovation.