At 9:31 am on December 28th, with the G566 train carrying more than 630 passengers departing from Guangzhou South Station on time and heading towards Qingdao, Guangzhou Railway Group has sent over 600 million passengers in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 8%, marking the first time in history. Yang Wenjia, a passenger who took the G566 high-speed railway, was lucky to become the 600 millionth passenger of Guangzhou Railway this year: "I didn't expect to be so lucky! I also received railway souvenirs and flowers, which made me very happy." Currently, with the completion and opening of dozens of high-speed railway trunk lines in Guangdong, Hunan, Hainan, Beijing Guangzhou, Shanghai Kunming, Guizhou Guangzhou, Jiangxi Shenzhen, Guangzhou Shenzhen Hong Kong and other provinces under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Railway, Guangdong and Hunan have achieved city to city high-speed railways, and Hainan has formed a circular high-speed railway. As of December this year, the operating mileage of Guangzhou Railway has reached 11879 kilometers, including 5910 kilometers of high-speed railway. This year, Guangzhou Railway has completed and put into operation 13 stations including Shantou and Chao'an, of which 12 are high-speed railway stations. This year, Guangzhou Railway operates 1398 pairs of passenger trains per day, forming a transportation pattern that takes about 1 hour to reach between cities in the Pearl River Delta region, about 2 hours to reach between major cities in Guangdong and Hunan, and 6 to 8 hours to reach between major cities in Guangdong and Hunan and major cities in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Southwest regions. In addition, the cross-border passenger flow of high-speed rail reached 27 million people throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 37%. Data shows that the passenger volume of Guangzhou Railway has broken multiple historical records this year. During the New Year holiday, the daily average number of passengers sent exceeded 2.13 million, setting a record for the highest number of New Year holiday trips in history; During the 40 day Spring Festival travel rush, 71.519 million passengers were sent, setting new records such as 2.212 million passengers sent in a single day during the Spring Festival travel rush; During the 62 day summer transportation, 124 million passengers were sent, an increase of 4.066 million compared to the same period last year, reaching the highest level in history. The passenger volume of 11 stations broke historical records. At present, 13 railway lines including Shenjiang High speed Railway, Guangzhan High speed Railway, Zhangshan High speed Railway, and Zhanhai High speed Railway are being constructed vigorously, which will further improve the railway transportation network. At the same time, some new lines and stations have started construction. It is expected that the construction of the new Xili Station and related projects at the Shenzhen hub will also begin before the end of this month. (New Society)