China’s swift economic development over the past decades has led to an escalation of urbanization and has birthed massive middle-class strata within the country. It has also spawned more efficient mobility options, which in turn boosted businesses and the overall economy. To support this increase in mobility, China has developed an intricate transportation infrastructure accommodating all modes of transport. However, at the same time, the ramifications of such progress on the environment cannot be overlooked. The increased frequency and volume of all four modes of transportation (road, rail, air, and waterway) contribute considerably to air pollution, water pollution, depletion of non-renewable resources, and global warming. The Chinese government is therefore taking ongoing measures to transform a smart and green transportation system as outlined in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).
Fewer road passengers but more air and rail customers
China has a well-connected and efficient network of motorways, which facilitates most people to take public transportation services to travel on the road. However, since 2013,
the number of passengers using the country's public road system dropped significantly. At the other end of the spectrum, China has extensively expanded its
civil aviation industry and
high-speed rail network in recent years, blunting the benefits of long-distance travel by road. Figures for China’s air and railway witnessed an increase in both the number of passengers and traffic volume. Before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak,
air passenger volume soared to nearly 660 million in 2019.
Rail ridership surged to 3.66 billion that year, with approximately 63 percent of
people traveling by high-speed rail. After a steep decline in 2020, high-speed rail ridership increased by more than 23 percent a year later, before dropping further amid China's stringent COVID-19 travel restrictions in 2022.
Increasing freight traffic in all modes of transport
Demand for goods carried by all modes of transportation in China experienced an increase in 2021, surpassing even the pre-pandemic level. In 2022, more than 37 billion metric tons of cargo were transported by
road freight, while 8.55 billion metric tons of
waterway cargo and 4.98 billion metric tons of
rail cargo were delivered. The growth in cargo volumes was accompanied by a parallel increase in freight turnover. For example, the
waterborne freight turnover spiked to more than 12 trillion-ton kilometers in 2022. However, due to port congestion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, freight rates for all types of cargo shot up and only began to decline in the second half of 2022, as shown by
China’s Coastal Bulk Freight Index (CBFI) and average
China (Export) Containerized Freight Index (CCFI).
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