The Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China Railway Group and other eight departments recently jointly issued the "Several Measures to Promote the Integration of Railway and Tourism Development and Expand Service Consumption", which was announced to the public on the 10th. The industry refers to it as an upgraded version of the measures related to increasing the opening of silver tourism trains.
The person in charge of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced that in January 2026, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Points in Service Consumption", which clearly proposed to "formulate and introduce special support policies to promote the integrated development of railways and tourism". In order to ensure the implementation of the work plan, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and China Railway Group, has conducted an in-depth summary of the implementation of the Action Plan on Increasing Silver Hair Tourism Trains to Promote Service Consumption Development and local experience and practices. Several measures have been studied and drafted, and recently issued for implementation.
Several measures have been proposed to build more than 160 dedicated train sets for railway tourism trains nationwide by 2030, with richer product supply, significantly improved tourism service functions of railway facilities and equipment, significantly enhanced railway tourism operation guarantee capabilities, effectively improved marketization level, and significant achievements in the integrated development of railway tourism. Several measures have proposed 15 main work tasks from 5 aspects.
One is to accelerate the tourism transformation of railway infrastructure. Strengthen the coordination and integration between railway and tourism planning, facility layout, resource development, and other aspects; Accelerate the implementation of site tourism transformation, strengthen the construction of tourism supporting facilities and aging friendly renovation; Actively promote the transformation of train tourism and encourage various social capital to invest in the renovation of tourist train facilities and equipment that meet different consumer needs.
The second is to enrich the railway tourism product system. Create diversified tourism special train products, develop distinctive tourism special line products, develop tourism ticket system products and railway cultural characteristic tourism products, tap into local and railway cultural tourism resources, and comprehensively expand the supply of railway tourism services.
The third is to improve the level of railway tourism services. Improve station commercial, tourism, transportation and other services, enhance the in transit services of tourist trains, explore and optimize sports equipment transportation, luggage management and delivery, and pet check-in services, and improve the tourism service functions of platforms such as "Railway 12306".
The fourth is to strengthen the operation guarantee of railway tourism. To better ensure the demand for tourism train operation and stimulate more tourism consumption, we need to tap into the potential of transportation capacity coordination, optimize railway ticketing services, and strengthen the sharing and application of railway tourism data.
The fifth is to strengthen policy guarantees and support. Encourage localities with conditions to introduce subsidies and reward policies for tourist trains, and support the creation of integrated railway and tourism consumption scenarios through pilot projects of new consumption formats, models, and scenarios. Encourage financial institutions to provide financing support for the technological transformation and facility updates of tourist trains. Support the expansion of channels for applying for the operation of tourist trains, strengthen publicity and promotion through multiple channels, and create the brand of "Railway Tourism Integration · Enjoying China".
The development potential of "transportation+" service consumption represented by tourist trains is enormous, and it is an important new growth area for service consumption. At the beginning of 2025, the Ministry of Commerce and nine other units issued the Action Plan on Increasing the Operation of Silver Hair Tourism Trains to Promote the Development of Service Consumption. A total of 2485 tourism trains were operated nationwide throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 33.6%.