China's state news agency Xinhua reported on January 9 that around 6000km of new lines are expected to open this year, quoting CRC general manager Mr Sheng Guangzu. CRC says the country's railway network grew to more than 100,000km last year, including more than 10,000km of high-speed lines. The government aims to expand the network to 120,000km by 2020.

CRC expects to carry 2.27 billion passengers in 2014, compared with around 2 billion last year, while freight volumes are projected to increase by 2% to 3.28 billion tonnes.

CRC's debt-to-asset ratio reached 63.2% by the end of the third quarter of last year, with debts of Yuan 3.06 trillion – up from Yuan 2.66 trillion at the end of 2012 – and assets of Yuan 4.84 trillion.