China saw 614 million railway passenger trips from July 1 to August 15 during the peak summer holiday season, data from the national railway operator China State Railway Group (CSRG) showed.

The average daily number of railway passengers reached 13.47 million in the first 10 days of August, marking an increase of 71.8 percent from the same period last year and 13.1 percent over the same period in 2019.

Since August 10, there has been a notable increase in the volume of returning passenger trips, the company said, adding that the peak day fell last Saturday with a total number of 15.33 million, hitting a record daily high since July.

To meet the strong travel demand, the railway department has begun operating more services.

During the summer holiday season, an average of 10,578 passenger train services were operated on national railways on a daily basis, marking an increase of 18.9 percent over the same period in 2019.

And based on the analysis of ticket sales and ticket sales' waiting list, the railway department also added more carriages on regular-speed trains and operated bullet trains at night, thus maximizing the passenger transport capacity to meet people's travel needs, said CSRG.

To better facilitate the travel market during the summer season, more tourism train services have been operating between major popular tourism destinations such as Beijing, Shanghai and east China's Huangshan City, said the national railway operator.

(With input from Xinhua)