The recovery of China's transportation sector accelerated in the first three quarters of this year, with surging infrastructure investment and steadily-restored passenger transport and logistics, an official with the Ministry of Transport said on Wednesday.

The fixed-asset investment in the transport sector expanded 9.8 percent from one year earlier during the first nine months, reaching 2.51 trillion yuan ($374 billion) as the sector continued to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, ministry spokesman Wu Chungeng said.

The growth rate marked the highest level over the same period in the past three years as transport investment saw a year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent and 2.2 percent in the first three quarters of 2018 and 2019, respectively, he said at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Combined investment in highways and waterways took the lion's share of the total investment with an inflow of 1.88 trillion yuan in the period, exceeding the government's annual target for the year, he added.

Wu said that the accelerated growth came as the country encouraged infrastructure investment to improve weak links in the sector and stabilize economic growth.

In addition to the existing transportation infrastructure construction, 311 new highway and waterway projects were approved during the first three quarters of the year, with a combined investment totaling 585 billion yuan, he said.

With its effective control over the COVID-19 epidemic, China has also seen continued recovery in its economic activity as passenger and freight throughput volumes all posted growth.

Freight volume decreased 3.3 percent year-on-year during the first three quarters to about 32.8 billion metric tons but has registered positive growth for five consecutive months since May, Wu said, adding that the growth rate reached 4.4 percent during the period and has almost returned to pre-epidemic levels.

Passenger transport has seen an upturn after enduring an epidemic-induced setback, with the passenger trip volume in September recovering to over 66 percent of the level seen during the same month last year, he said. The country handled a total of 6.8 billion passenger trips during the January-September period.

Wu also noted the demand for express delivery, and China-Europe freight train services have shown strong momentum despite the fallout from the COVID-19 epidemic.

More than 56.1 billion parcels were delivered during the first three quarters, up nearly 28 percent from a year earlier, Wu said. He added that the number of China-Europe freight trains rose significantly during the period as well, with a total of 8,756 trains being put into operation, a year-on-year increase of 46 percent.