Yichangbei Railway Station surpasses 1 million passenger trips

By Yan Wanqin.

As of July 27, Yichangbei Railway Station had handled more than 1 million passenger trips since opening late last year.

The station, which officially began operations on December 26 last year, has seen passenger traffic grow rapidly in stages. The first 500,000 trips took 119 days, while the second 500,000 was reached in just 95 days, showing the faster growth driven by new routes and direct services.

The station expects the time needed to reach the next milestones of 2 million and 3 million trips to shorten further as more routes are added and train frequencies increase.

"Since July, Yichangbei has launched new direct high-speed rail services to Xi'an and Qingdao under the national railway network's new schedule, significantly reducing the need for transfers via Wuhan and Zhengzhou," said Zhang Xiaomeng, head of the dispatch section at the station's general management office. The new routes have cut travel times by nearly three hours, greatly increasing passengers' willingness to travel through Yichangbei, Zhang added.
 

The station now handles an average of 6,000 passenger arrivals and departures per day, with major passenger flows covering Wuhan within the province and extending to cities including Tianjin, Xi'an, and Beijing.

Beyond transportation, the station is using high-speed rail to support tourism development. Yichang has introduced policies offering discounted or free admission to multiple A-level scenic spots for passengers arriving at Yichangbei with valid train tickets.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu High-Speed Railway connects cross-regional attractions such as the Three Gorges and the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, creating a tourism corridor between western Hubei and central Shaanxi. The connection has boosted two-way tourist flows and continues to support steady growth in passenger traffic at the station.

Chen Fei, Deng Yuqin, Li Ruocheng also contributed to this story.