Heavy snow in China's central and eastern areas has led to
expressway closures, flight cancellations and hoards of passengers
swarming into railway stations.
Snowstorms worsened the situation for the country's
transportation system that is already running at peak levels with
millions of people trying to return to their homes for the
traditional Spring Festival.
A total of 1,200 passengers were stranded at Guangzhou's Baiyun
airport on Saturday and Sunday. The number fell to 200 on Monday as
flights to Changde of Hunan and Luoyang of Henan remained
suspended.
About 8,800 of the 9,500 long-distance coaches scheduled to
depart central Chinese city of Wuhan have been cancelled, affecting
300,000 passengers.
Blizzards cut off all the expressways in central China's Shanxi
and Henan provinces and most expressways in eastern Jiangsu
province.
"People usually turn to railway transportation, which is less
affected by bad weather, when there are expressway closures and
flight cancellations and delays," said Ministry of Railway
spokesman Wang Yongping.
On Saturday alone, railways across the country delivered 4.5
million passengers, up 44.5 percent from a year ago, according to
the latest data from the ministry.
"The number of railway passengers this year could be much larger
than ever," Wang said.
The ministry previously forecast that China's railways would
carry a record 178.6 million passengers during the travel rush from
Jan. 23 to March 2, up from 156 million last year.
Accidents have happened. Leng Jing, a student from the Anhui
Normal University, was killed after being falling off an
overcrowded platform in a railway station in Wuhu, Anhui
province.
In Changsha, Hunan, more than 100 passengers holding tickets
failed to board a packed train. The heads of both stations were
sacked by Monday.
Meanwhile, a Beijing airport official said "a few" flights on
Monday had been delayed because of snow, but gave no further
details.
The National Meteorological Center forecast that heavy snows and
rains would continue to hit the central provinces of Henan and
Hubei and eastern provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui in the
next two days.
The Ministry of Communications has issued an urgent notice,
ordering local transport departments to be well prepared for
further possible emergencies caused by the extreme weather.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2008)