Factbox: China's transport system expands in 2018

China has made steady progress in improving the transport system in 2018, according to a new report from the Ministry of Transport.

The following are some key figures from the report:

-- At the end of 2018, railways in operation rose 3.1 percent to 131,000 km, with more than 29,000 km being high-speed lines.

-- In total, 3.38 billion passenger trips were made on railways, up 9.4 percent.

-- The total length of highways stood at 4.85 million km, up 73,100 km year on year. Among the total, 142,600 km were freeways.

-- China had 235 civil airports at the end of 2018, up from 229 a year ago.

-- Length of navigable inland waterways rose 108 km year on year to 127,100 km.

-- At ports, there were 2,444 berths for 10,000-tonnage ships or above, up 78 year on year.

-- Fixed asset investment in the transport sector rose 0.7 percent to 3.22 trillion yuan (479 billion U.S. dollars) last year.