China's rail freight up 4.3% in October

BEIJING - China's rail freight volume, an indicator of economic activity, registered steady growth in October, the national railway operator said Tuesday.

Railways carried 255 million tons of cargo last month, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, according to figures from the China Railway Corporation (CRC).

In the first 10 months, rail freight volume totaled 2.44 billion tons, up 12.8 percent year on year.

CRC data also showed that more than 275 million passenger trips were made through the railway network in October, up 11.6 percent.

The rise was mainly boosted by the travel rush of the eight-day National Day holiday at the beginning of the month, CRC said.

In the first 10 months, a total of 2.59 billion passenger trips were made, up 9.4 percent.

As of Oct 31, 805,000 passenger trips were made through the new high-speed Fuxing trains, which started operation on September 21 between Beijing and Shanghai at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.