Shanghai Railway Station is expected to send more than 16 million passengers during the Spring Festival transportation, which is a record high.
On January 13th, reporters from Shanghai Railway Station (which encompasses Shanghai Station, South Shanghai Station, Hongqiao Station, Songjiang Station, West Shanghai Station, Beixiang North Station, Anting North Station, Anting West Station, Jinshan North Station, and Liantang Station) learned that the railway station in Shanghai has unveiled its transportation plan for the Spring Festival in 2025. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, it is expected to send more than 16 million passengers, with a daily average of over 4 million passengers, representing an increase of more than 13% year-on-year and hitting a record high. Among them, South Shanghai Station is expected to send 2.35 million passengers, with an increase of 47.1% year-on-year, and Songjiang Station is expected to send 1.45 million passengers.
The 2025 Spring Festival travel rush by railway will last from January 14th to February 22nd, totaling 40 days. This year’s Spring Festival travel rush is relatively early, with the blend of student, family reunion, migrant worker, and tourist flows creating a strong desire to travel among passengers, which is more intense than in previous years. With the statutory holiday extended to eight days, passengers will have more leisure time to travel during the holiday, and the family reunion and tourism flows are expected to continue to grow during the holiday period.
Shanghai Railway Station is expected to reach its peak on January 26th, with an expected daily passenger flow exceeding 7 million people, which may set a new record high. During the Spring Festival travel rush, Shanghai Railway Station will implement the train operation diagram for the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush and plans to open an additional 221 pairs of trains in various directions such as Yunnan Guizhou, Sichuan Chongqing, Northwest China, Northeast China, Central China, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shandong, Anhui and Northern Jiangsu.
Among them, Hongqiao Station plans to open an additional 130.5 pairs of trains. South Shanghai Station will retain 11 pairs of conventional trains and plan to open an additional seven pairs of conventional trains to南昌, Changsha, Chongqing, Kunming and Guiyang directions. Songjiang Station adopts a “departure + stopover” train operation mode and will open additional departure trains to Yunnan Guizhou and Sichuan Chongqing directions to effectively absorb passenger flow during peak times and alleviate pressure on other stations. In addition, the station will adjust its transportation capacity based on actual passenger flow by adding carriages on conventional trains or through heavy union of bullet trains to meet the travel needs of passengers during the Spring Festival travel rush as much as possible.
During the Spring Festival travel rush, a new Shanghai South Station and Songjiang Station will usher in their first Spring Festival travel rush providing a better waiting environment for passengers; while Shanghai Station North Shanghai Station Hongqiao Station Songjiang Station “Xinshang” service studio will make a fresh appearance with carefully planned exclusive areas such as priority passenger waiting areas children’s play areas and breastfeeding rooms. In addition the railway station in Shanghai has set up an emergency passenger boarding channel for security inspections during the Spring Festival travel rush providing priority verification and security inspection services for key passengers such as the elderly children pregnant women and women with disabilities as well as passengers who are less than 15 minutes away from the train departure time. The stations also set up 12306 appointment meeting points with South Shanghai Station installing high-definition two-way call transmitters to ensure a quick response and seamless connection for key passenger services.
Shanghai Railway Station has four major stations and six small stations which are relatively far apart from each other. When traveling to the train station passengers should confirm the name of the station they are heading to in order to avoid going to the wrong station. Songjiang Station has two waiting areas namely South Area and North Area. Checkpoints 1-2 are located in South Area (old station building) while checkpoints 3-15 are located in North Area (new station building). Passengers should confirm in advance the area where they will board their train and those who need to transfer between north and south areas should retain sufficient transfer time of about 20-25 minutes when purchasing their tickets to facilitate their travel.
