The number of China's railway passengers continued to rise as millions of travelers were on their way back from family reunions on the last day of the Spring Festival holiday, Xinhua learnt from the The Ministry of Railways (MOR) on Saturday.

Railways carried 4.83 million passengers on Friday, up 384,000 from a year ago, 595,000 more than Thursday, according to the MOR office in charge of Spring Festival transport.

To cope with the travel peak, 722 temporary trains were put into operation on Friday, with 349 serving for mid-and-long distance service.

The office said more railway travelers were expected based on the current calculation of ticket selling.


Passengers wait for security check at the entrance of the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 31, 2009. The peak of return passenger transportation occured here at the end of the Spring Festival holidays.(Xinhua/Fan Jiashan)
The ministry pledged to arrange more trains to the transportation hubs including Chengdu, Hefei, Wuhan, Nanchang and Hunan.

In the first 20 days of the 40-day festival rush period starting from Jan. 11, 87.93 million trips were made on the country's railways. That was 4.40 million daily on average, up 15.6 percent from the same period last year.

Besides, 248 million travelers hit the road during Jan 25-31, up 5.6 percent from the same period last year, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) said on Saturday.

However, heavy fog on Saturday forced flights and expressways to close in east and central China, delaying the return of thousands of people at the end of the weeklong break.

Light fog would continue to haunt most parts of the south China, and would reduce the visibility to less than 1,000 meters in some regions, and even to less than 200 meters in some areas, said the National Meteorological Center (NMC) on Saturday.

MOT has kept updating the weather and traffic information to the public, increased ticket services and extended working hours to avoid passengers being stranded.

China raised the transport capacity of routes destined for the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, where millions of migrant rural workers were employed, according to the MOT.

A record 73,000 road passenger lines have been put into use in the country's rural areas as the road infrastructure construction improved in the vast rural areas.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, is the most important traditional festival in China. It falls on Jan. 26 this year.