据广东省政府介绍，中国南方枢纽城市广州的一座火车站在本月假期期间创下了单日客运量全国纪录，其列车发车频率也备受瞩目——平均每40秒就有一趟列车出发。
A railway station in southern China’s hub city Guangzhou has set a national record for trips in a single day and drawn attention for the frequency of train departures – one every 40 seconds – during this month’s holiday period, according to the provincial government.
广东省委宣传部在其微信公众号上称，10月1日是中国大陆为期七天的国庆假期首日，当天广州南站共开行1252趟列车，运送旅客逾100万人次。这也是中国铁路史上首次出现单日客运量突破100万人次的情况。
Guangzhou South Railway Station handled 1,252 train services and just over 1 million trips on October 1, the start of the seven-day National Day holiday across mainland China, the publicity department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee said on its WeChat account. Crossing the 1 million-trip milestone was a first for China, it added.
当天在客流高峰期，列车每隔40秒便发一班。省委宣传部形容这一频率“比人们刷短视频的速度还要快”。
At peak periods that day, trains departed every 40 seconds, an interval the publicity department said was “faster than people could scroll through short videos”. By comparison, trains on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line operated as frequently as every two minutes, according to travel platform All About Japan.
据旅游平台All About Japan的数据，相比之下，东京山手线的列车发车间隔仅为两分钟；莫斯科全长540公里的地铁系统在高峰时段的发车间隔则为80至90秒。
Moscow’s 540km (336 miles) subway system ran trains at intervals of 80 to 90 seconds during peak hours.
智库“广东改革学会”执行主席彭澎表示，广州南站的设计初衷便是应对大客流。作为拥有1870万人口的广东省会城市广州的五大铁路枢纽之一，该站设有15个站台和28条轨道。
Guangzhou South was designed to handle high traffic volumes, said Peng Peng, executive chairman of think tank Guangdong Society of Reform. As one of five major railway hubs in Guangzhou – Guangdong’s provincial capital, which has a population of 18.7 million people – the station has 15 platforms and 28 tracks.
彭澎补充道，广州很早就着手整合地铁、城际铁路与高速铁路系统，力求实现旅客出行的“无缝衔接”。
Guangzhou moved early to integrate its subway system, intercity railways and high-speed railways to make travel relatively “seamless”, Peng added.
据省委宣传部统计，在10月1日至7日的假期期间，广州南站还开行了202趟夜间高速列车，这一数量约占该站单日发车总量的六分之一。
For the October 1-7 holiday, Guangzhou South also operated 202 overnight high-speed services, accounting for about one-sixth of all trains departing the station on a single day, according to the publicity department.
中国国家铁路集团此前预计，在涵盖国庆假期及9月下旬中秋节的16天里，全国铁路客运量将创下2.84亿人次的新纪录。
China State Railway Group had projected a record 284 million passenger trips during a 16-day period covering the National Day break and the Mid-Autumn Festival in late September.
为应对节假日客流高峰，据宣传部门介绍，广州南站扩大了换乘区与出发通道，优化了旅客信息服务，并根据候补购票需求数据增开了多趟列车。
To prepare for the holiday rush, Guangzhou South expanded transfer areas and departure lanes, improved passenger information services and added train services based on wait-list demand data, the publicity department said.
该部门称，新增的列车班次进一步密切了广州南站与深圳、长沙、南宁、珠海、郑州及重庆等主要城市的联系。
The additional services strengthened links with major cities including Shenzhen, Changsha, Nanning, Zhuhai, Zhengzhou and Chongqing, it added.
目前，广州南站已与包括北京、香港在内的196个城市实现互通。
Guangzhou South connects with a total of 196 cities, including Beijing and Hong Kong.
独立铁路专家大卫·冯表示：“综合上述因素，就不难理解为何广州南站会如此繁忙了。”
“When you add all this together, it’s not rocket science to see why Guangzhou South is as busy as it gets,” independent railway specialist David Feng said.