Passengers get on and off a train at Xuzhou East Railway Station in Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu province, Aug 1, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING — China's railways handled 409.19 million passenger trips in July, soaring 80.9 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Transport showed.

A total of 414.89 million tonnes of cargo were transported via China's railways last month, up 0.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the ministry.

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In the first seven months of this year, passenger trips made via the country's railways skyrocketed 115.1 percent year-on-year to about 2.18 billion. The volume of cargo transported by these railways topped 2.91 billion tonnes, up 0.6 percent from the same period last year.

The data also showed that China's fixed-asset investment in railways hit 371.3 billion yuan (about $51.65 billion) in the January-July period, representing a 7.1-percent increase compared to the same period in 2022.