- The collaboration between Didi and train stations comes as hundreds of millions of Chinese head home across the country for family reunions
- Didi has been integrated with China’s national railway booking system since 2016
Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing platform, is working with train stations in over 50 cities to improve access to ride-share services in an effort to move passengers around quickly during the biggest travel season of the year.
Newly-added facilities ahead of the Lunar New Year include specialised car parks for ride-hailing vehicles and dedicated waiting zones for passengers with improved indoor and outdoor signposts.
The new services cover 62 railway stations in Chinese cities including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing and Chengdu, and have reduced passenger transit time by over 11 per cent so far, according to a statement by the Beijing-based start-up on Monday.
In 2019, Didi completed over 100 million ride-hailing trips that originated from the country's train stations, according to the company. Among those, about 18 per cent happened outside the normal operating time of public transport services.
The collaboration between Didi and train stations comes as hundreds of millions of Chinese head home across the country for family reunions, with the beginning of the Year of Rat celebrations commencing on January 25.
During the world's largest annual human migration, about 3 billion trips are expected to be made in 2020, said Zhao Chenxi, deputy secretary general and spokesman of the National Development and Reform Commission, at a briefing earlier this month.
China's railways are expected to carry 440 million passengers during this year's Spring Festival travel season, which is also known as chunyun, a year-on-year increase of 32.6 million, or 8 per cent.
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The new services have already seen results with 94 per cent of passengers at Nanjing South Station recently saying they were able to find pickup spots via Didi's new signs. Parking violations by Didi drivers around Wuxi East Station have also dropped by about 90 per cent, said the company.
Didi has been integrated with China's national railway booking system since 2016. It has similar partnership with airports in cities including Beijing and Zhengzhou, according to the company.
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