In the first half of the year, national railways achieved a cumulative freight volume of 2.015 billion tonnes, marking a 1.8% year-on-year increase. Within this total, coal shipments amounted to 1.051 billion tonnes, with thermal coal accounting for 701 million tonnes. These figures were recently disclosed by China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway).

Driving a Full-Chain Transformation and Accelerating Modern Railway Logistics

Data provided by China Railway indicates that during the first half, the group signed a total of 1,437 integrated logistics contracts, covering a contracted shipment volume of 1.194 billion tonnes. It operated 35,800 cross-regional freight trains, moving 38.56 million tonnes of goods. Rail-water intermodal transport volume reached 9.12 million TEUs, an 11% increase year-on-year. Bookings for 'single-bill-of-lading' products totaled 59,000 TEUs. Freight volume for full-chain logistics services, with railway trunk line transport as the core, reached 243 million tonnes, surging 87.9% compared to the same period last year.

During the period, national railways operated 75 special trains for Xinjiang cotton exports, transporting 860,000 tonnes of cotton, representing a 218.8% year-on-year surge. For north-to-south grain transport, the use of direct rail or multimodal 'single-bill-of-lading' methods has compressed the total transit time from 18 days to as little as 4 days. Grain shipments via national railways reached 58 million tonnes, up 9.2%. Imported fertilizer trains adopted a 'passenger-train-like' scheduled operation model, effectively streamlining intermediate processes compared to traditional scattered shipments. The time from port unloading to delivery at production workshops in Yunnan was reduced to just 3 days. Fertilizer shipments via national railways totaled 28.42 million tonnes, an 8.6% increase.

For the national railway network as a whole, cumulative freight volume in the first half reached 2.622 billion tonnes, a 2.5% year-on-year rise. Freight turnover amounted to 1,884.959 billion tonne-kilometers, growing 6.7%. In June alone, freight volume was 436 million tonnes, remaining largely flat compared to the same month last year.

Analyzing shipments by category, national railways transported 1.392 billion tonnes of coal, 541 million tonnes of containers, and 28.47 million tonnes of fertilizers and pesticides in the first half, representing year-on-year increases of 4.1%, 7.8%, and 14.3%, respectively.

Behind these impressive figures lies the railway sector's ongoing effort to transform from a traditional trunk line carrier into a full-chain integrated logistics service provider. While ensuring stable transport of key materials and promoting multimodal transport models, this transformation path also faces numerous practical bottlenecks and challenges.

Regarding the main difficulties encountered during this shift, a representative from China Railway's Transport Department highlighted several key areas. First is the challenge of transforming mindsets, as cross-regional and cross-modal coordination mechanisms still require continuous improvement. Second are the shortcomings in multimodal transport connectivity, where insufficient links between some regional railway branch lines, logistics yards, and ports, industrial parks, and factories create a situation of efficient trunk lines but bottlenecks at the 'first and last mile'. Third, the market-oriented operational mechanism needs further refinement, with pricing mechanisms, assessment systems, and incentive models requiring better alignment with integrated logistics services, balancing the public service function of ensuring supply with market-driven operational efficiency. Fourth, the ecosystem for value-added services is still developing, with capabilities in supporting services across the chain—such as warehousing, finance, information, cold chain, and oversized cargo—needing strengthening, and the service system for high-value-added general merchandise requiring further maturation.

Moving forward, China Railway will focus on improving market-oriented logistics organization and assessment mechanisms, iteratively upgrading digital service platforms, enriching its portfolio of full-chain logistics products, addressing multimodal transport connectivity gaps, and enhancing logistics yard facilities. It aims to balance ensuring public livelihood supply with market-oriented operations, optimize the transport structure, extend full-chain logistics services, and continue reducing overall societal logistics costs.

With the north-to-south grain transport time compressed from 18 days to as little as 4 days, a question arises regarding the rate of grain loss during transport. The aforementioned China Railway Transport Department representative responded that using direct rail or multimodal 'single-bill-of-lading' models for this route enables scheduled, fixed-route, fixed-train operation. This significantly reduces repeated intermediate transloading, handling, and prolonged storage, which can notably decrease losses from mold, spoilage, and spillage, thereby ensuring grain quality and stabilizing circulation costs.

"Currently, there is no unified statistical data on the loss rate, but the overall loss level has seen substantial improvement," the representative stated. "This effectively mitigates the grain loss issues associated with traditional long-cycle, scattered transportation, while also shortening the turnover cycle, stabilizing supply rhythms, and reducing the risks of seasonal price fluctuations."

Passenger Traffic Hits Record High as Rail-Tourism Integration Stimulates Consumer Markets

On the passenger side, national railways handled a cumulative 2.348 billion passenger trips in the first half, a 5.0% year-on-year increase, setting a new historical record for the period. In June alone, passenger trips reached 379 million, up 1.6%. During the first half, an average of 11,468 passenger trains operated daily across the network, an increase of 630 trains or 5.8% year-on-year. May 1st saw a single-day record of 24.844 million passenger trips.

The China-Laos Railway handled 188,000 cross-border passenger trips, a 25.9% increase, while the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High-Speed Rail handled 16.962 million cross-border trips, up 13.8%. National railways served 12.314 million trips by foreign nationals, a significant 33.6% year-on-year rise.

Regarding rail-tourism integration, national railways operated 1,797 tourist trains in the first half, comprising 967 dedicated tourist trains and 830 tourist route services. It also customized 445 special trains for events like 'fan concert trains' and 'sports fan trains'.

When asked about the core drivers behind the record passenger numbers, the China Railway Transport Department representative cited macroeconomic consumption recovery, sustained release of travel demand for tourism, study tours, and business, coupled with policy benefits like transit visa exemptions, which collectively contributed to significant growth in cross-border and foreign passenger travel.

Regarding trends in passenger flow structure for the second half of the year, the representative responded: "It is forecast that the second half will see structural characteristics of steady growth in long-distance cultural and study tour travel, increased frequency of short-distance commuter travel within city clusters, and continued expansion of cross-border and foreign passenger flows. Capacity allocation will adhere to dynamic big data analysis and precise deployment during peak periods, balancing intercity public transport-like commuting services with quality long-distance travel."

On the impact of rail-tourism integration models on stimulating consumption and local economies along the routes, the representative stated that China Railway adheres to the principle of 'trains heading towards scenic areas', creating themed cultural tourism trains, study tour routes, and event-specific trains to link tourism resources along the lines and activate new business formats like the silver economy, study tour economy, and event-related consumption.

"Rail-tourism integration extends the regional cultural tourism industry chain and promotes the integrated development of regional tourism resources. As for the quantitative impact on local economies, there is currently no unified statistical data available," the representative added.

In the second half of the year, China Railway will continue to deepen coordination with local cultural and tourism departments, improve tourism pass products, enrich the supply of themed trains, enhance connectivity and supporting facilities along routes, and persistently amplify the economic effects of rail-based cultural tourism.

For the full year 2026, national railways plan to achieve a passenger volume of 4.402 billion trips, a 3.5% year-on-year increase, and a freight volume of 4.13 billion tonnes, a 1.5% increase.