STORY: Railway workers brave cold to ensure safe Spring Festival travel rush
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: Feb. 10, 2025
LENGTH: 00:00:58
LOCATION: TAIYUAN, China
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the railway station
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): GAO XIANGFEI, Railway maintenance worker
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): ZHAO XIAOZHUO, Railway maintenance worker
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): LI ERLE, Railway maintenance worker

STORYLINE:

China's railways have handled over 300 million passenger trips during the ongoing 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which kicked off on Jan. 14.

Behind the scenes are dedicated railway maintenance workers, busy in the wee hours to ensure every journey remains safe.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): GAO XIANGFEI, Railway maintenance worker
"The colder the weather, the greater the internal stress within the rails. If the connecting components become loose or fracture, it can affect the proper functioning of switches. If left unaddressed, this could potentially lead to a train derailment, posing serious safety risks. Even something as small as a bolt demands our utmost attention."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): ZHAO XIAOZHUO, Railway maintenance worker
"Rail flaw detection is a highly specialized technical task. Determining whether there is damage, if it is indeed a flaw, and measuring the extent of the damage down to the millimeter all rely on the inspector's skilled operation of the equipment and careful analysis of the signal patterns."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): LI ERLE, Railway maintenance worker
"Sometimes, correcting a single defect requires three to four rounds of adjustments. We must ensure that variations in rail height and alignment do not exceed one millimeter."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Taiyuan, China.
(XHTV)