December 26, 2022 marked the 10th birthday of the Beijing-Guangzhou High Speed Railway, the longest one of its kind in the world. At 07:40 a.m. on the day, the first Beijingxi-Shijiazhuang one-hour, non-stop, high speed train departed by carrying its first passengers, an unforgettable way to celebrate the railway’s 10th birthday.
Over the past decade, the Beijing-Guangzhou High Speed Railway has safely carried 285 million passengers. The number of trains in operation increased from 71 per day in 2013, to the maximum 152 nowadays. Annual passenger throughput rose from 21.338 million in 2013 to maximum 40.14 million in 2019.
Also, over the past decade, passengers boarding trains in any station along the Beijing-Guangzhou High Speed Railway have experienced upgrading from cash, bank card to QR code scanning for ticket payments, from magnetic-media tickets to e-tickets, from manual ticket and ID verification to more intelligent face-recognition control. Station signs continue to be upgraded, the inbound flow line is optimized continuously, waiting space becomes cleaner, and passengers are having better and more comfortable travel experiences. The stations have built special passages for transit passengers. Furthermore, a long-term communication mechanism has been established with buses, subways, and taxis, to achieve mutual recognition of security-check results, so that passengers have better experience in the “last-mile” of their travel.
In the past decade, train models running on Beijing-Guangzhou High Speed Railway have evolved from the original CRH380A/AL Hexie train to the current CR400AF/BF Fuxing train, with speed jumping from 300 km/h in the beginning to the current 350 km/h. China Railway Beijing Group Co., Ltd. operates high-quality benchmark trains, provides a number of special services such as “silent cars”, premium business seats, and QR code for railway passenger service. At the same time, it also offers considerate services such as breast-feeding screens, service boxes, and baggage loss prevention, provides comfort services such as seamless transit for the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, so everyone has a happy and safe travel experience. (By Li Rong, Chai Na, Yue Yang and Shang Yuling)
