Xifeng county eyes boost to road transport system

Xifeng county in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, has made great efforts to improve its road transport services, according to local officials.

Xifeng county has finished with tenders to give taxi management franchises for 360 new taxi cabs, which are expected to be put into operation by the end of this year.

Xifeng has also encouraged the replacement of existing conventional taxis with methanol-fueled taxis, to promote energy conservation and emission reduction.

At present, 79 gasoline-fueled taxis belonging to three companies have been completely replaced, and the county now has a total of 131 methanol-fueled taxis.

The county has a total of two passenger transport companies, 31 bus lines, 133 buses, three tour service bus companies and 76 tour service buses with 2,591 seats.

Officials said Xifeng will add one tour service bus company and another 36 buses this year.

Furthermore, the county will continue to promote the building of Tongcuncun, a travel services platform in rural areas.

To date, 300,000 yuan ($42,671.8) has been invested to promote the Tongcuncun platform. It currently gets all its data from operational vehicles and has 14,028 registered users, with an average daily active volume of more than 320 people.

Xifeng county has also undertaken a series of measures to strengthen the management of its road transport market, including launching 14 joint campaigns and detaining 172 illegally operated vehicles.

Additionally, the county has set up a hotline to identify cars that are on the roads but without licenses.

Xifeng county saw steady expansion in passenger and cargo transport in the current year, official data showed.

Road passengers transported in the year to date reached 20.97 million people and the freight volumes reached 18.23 million tons.