The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been in its 40-day Spring Festival travel peak since January 30, according to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company.

Wu Fei, a leading official of the company, said that his company is projected to carry 640,000 passengers during the peak, a three percent rise from 2009, with the daily number of passengers reaching 16,000.

 
Photo taken on January 30, 2010, shows T166, the first train departing from the Lhasa Railway Station on the first day of the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush. (Xinhua Photo)

Meanwhile, the Lhasa Railway Station is expected to handle 100,000 passengers during the travel rush, 10 percent lower than in the previous year, according to Jia Nailin, deputy director of the station.

On the first day of the peak, the trains departing from the Lhasa Railway Station carried 2,400 passengers, with the occupancy rate hitting 80 percent, while the trains arriving at the station brought 1,700 passengers, with the occupancy rate of 50 percent.

Due to Tibet's special weather conditions, most of its migrant workers and students have left, he said, adding that therefore, the passenger flow during the New Year travel rush is mainly composed of the people visiting their relatives.

 
Passengers board a train at the Xining Railway Station in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province, on Jan. 30, 2010, the first day of China's Spring Festival travel peak. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)

To provide better services for the passengers, the Lhasa Railway Station has prepared waiting rooms for mothers and babies and soldiers, as well as green passageways for pregnant women, the old, weak, sick and disabled.

Moreover, 500 volunteers will offer guidance services in the Lhasa, Xining, Golmud and other major railway stations on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the coming 40 days, said Sonam Dorje, a leading official of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company.

It is the second time that Suoguo and his classmate Lhakpa, students of Lhasa Normal College, serve as volunteers to help passengers carry their luggage at the Lhasa Railway Station