Attendants at a Fuxing train bring a performance to passengers as the bullet train with more than 700 passengers departs the Kunming Railway Station in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, marking the full operation of the China-Laos Railway. Photo: cnsphoto

 
The domestic section of the China-Laos railway, a signature project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is to increase capacity amid the Spring festival travel rush that begins on Monday.

The China-Laos Railway links Kunming in Southwest China's Yunnan Province with Laos' capital Vientiane, and the domestic section runs from Kunming to Mohan, a border town in Yunnan.

An average of 28.5 pairs of bullet trains are scheduled to run on the domestic section of the China-Laos railway every day, an increase of 9 pairs, according to China Railway Kunming Group. 

This equals an average daily transport capacity of 39,000 seats, an increase of 40 percent, the group said.

In addition, it plans to run 25 pairs of ordinary trains every day, with an average daily capacity of 38,000 sleeper seats.

The Spring Festival travel period in 2022 will last for 40 days, running from Monday to February 25.

Up to now, the Kunming Railway Group has issued a total of 85,000 tickets for the 2022 Spring Festival Travel rush, of which 31,000 are bound for other provinces and 54,000 are within Yunnan.

The passenger volume during the Chinese Spring Festival in 2022 is expected to increase substantially compared to 2021, and may even double that of 2020, according to the Ministry of Transport.