China's railway system is expected to handle 13.85 million passenger trips on Wednesday, the 10th day of this year's 40-day travel rush period, according to official estimates.
The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, amounts to the world's largest annual human migration as millions embark on journeys across the nation to reunite with loved ones to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese New Year.
Each year at this time, Chinese railway authorities augment transport capacity by deploying additional train services. On Wednesday, 1,544 additional trains were expected to operate.
Since Tuesday, increasing rail passenger flows have prompted the authorities to mobilize more overnight high-speed trains.
"For the newly added overnight high-speed trains, we have made detailed safety plans in advance to ensure passengers reach their destinations as early as possible while ensuring the trains' safe operations," said Ge Quangui, deputy head of the Xiangyang Locomotive Depot of China Railway Wuhan Group.
Meanwhile, adverse winter weather conditions continued to disrupt the travel rush across the country's major roads.
As of 07:00 Wednesday, snow and icy road conditions has prompted traffic control measures on seven highway sections in the provincial-level regions of Jilin, Guizhou and Xinjiang, while low visibility caused by dense fog has led the authorities to either close or restrict traffic on nearly 100 expressway sections in the provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and another four provincial-level regions.
The country is expected to see a slight peak in road traffic on Thursday, according to official estimates.
The Spring Festival falls on Feb 17 this year. The official holiday lasts nine days from Feb 14 to 23, with the travel rush running from Feb 2 through March 13.
13.85 mln rail trips expected across China on Day 10 of Spring Festival travel rush
