Railway passenger trips in China hit a record high of about 2.1 billion in the first half of 2024, a surge of 18.4 year on year, data from the country’s railway operator showed Friday.

China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. said that during the period, an average of 10,256 passenger trains were operated daily, up 9.4 percent year on year.

The company said it has beefed up its capabilities for transporting cross-border passengers since the beginning of this year. The China-Laos Railway handled about 117,000 cross-boundary passenger trips in H1.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed railway reported about 7.59 million passenger trips, up 72.4 percent from a year earlier.

Driven by expanding tourism demands across the country, the group said a total of 789 tourist trains were put into operation in H1, an increase of 20.3 percent from the same period last year.