BEIJING, April 8 -- China saw an increase in passenger trips in its urban rail transit networks in March, official data showed.

The country's rail transit lines in urban areas registered 2.54 billion passenger trips last month, surging 58.9 percent year on year, data from the Ministry of Transport showed. The volume went up 16.6 percent month on month.

At the end of March, China had 292 urban rail transit lines in operation in 54 cities, with a total length of 9,652.6 km, according to the ministry.