Govt aims to upgrade transport services

The transport sector will continue to improve service quality to benefit people as it builds on major progress made in the past, Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

The ministry aims to provide more convenient, faster and more comfortable services to benefit more people, he said.

An integrated service system will be established. "For example, people will look for a better and more convenient transfer service when they make transfers between different modes of transportation," Li said.

He said the industry will plan transfer hubs with multiple transportation modes in accordance with the concept of "zero-meter transfer" to allow passengers to make transfers more easily.

The sector also aims to provide faster services, and will continue to build high-speed railways and civil aviation facilities to enhance transportation capacity.

A two-hour transportation circle will be established within city clusters.

More comfortable transportation services will be provided. In urban areas, bus, metro and taxi services will be improved.

Li said the transport system will benefit more people through the promotion of the unified development of bus services in urban and rural areas.

The industry has already established a faster, more convenient passenger transport service system, which includes bullet trains and domestic aviation, Li said.

"Bullet trains have transported more than 70 percent of railway passengers, and more than 80 percent of commercial flights arrived on time in the past three years," he said.

China's civil aviation regulator will promote artificial intelligence and digitalization in the industry to make flying more convenient, said Dong Zhiyi, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, adding that such services include passengers scanning their faces before embarkation, making the status of checked luggage visible during the journey, and providing services that allow checked luggage to be delivered to homes.

The transport sector has also paid more attention to environmental protection. By the end of last year, China had 466,000 new energy buses, comprising about 66 percent of all city buses.

Research and development of green technology will be promoted to build a more efficient and environmentally friendly railway system, said Liu Zhenfang, director of the National Railway Administration of China.

China's transportation sector has developed rapidly since 2013.

The high-speed railway network now covers 95 percent of cities with populations of more than 1 million, and 98 percent of cities with more than 200,000 people have access to freeways.