Railway stations see travel peak as Spring Festival holiday comes to end

Passengers queue at the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 12, 2016. Railway stations around the nation witnessed surging passenger flows on Friday as the Spring Festival holiday came to the end and people started to return to work. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - More than 10 million trips are expected to be made by train on Saturday, a record daily level during the Spring Festival travel rush, or "Chunyun", according to official data.

The China Railway Corporation (CRC), the country's rail carrier, added 800 passenger trains on Saturday to deal with the traffic.

As the week-long Spring Festival holiday ends on Saturday, railway passenger numbers started to rise on Friday, after 8.9 million trips were made by train, up 5.6 percent year on year.

About 332 million trips are expected to be made by train during the 40-day "Chunyun" starting Jan. 24, the world's largest annual human migration for family reunions.

The National weather observatory said a cold front is sweeping across China, bringing low temperatures and rain or snow to most parts of the country.

The CRC said it has taken measures to prepare for the bad weather. It also advised passengers to arrive early at train stations.