China's railway network handled 81.55 million trips between January 26 and February 1, the first week of the Spring Festival travel rush, industry data showed.

This translated to an average of about 11.65 million railway trips every day during the past week, said China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway).

China Railway estimated that a total of 480 million railway trips are expected to be made during this year's Spring Festival travel rush, surging 37.9 percent compared with the 2023 level.

The travel surge, also known as "chunyun," which started on January 26 and will end on March 5, will see hundreds of millions of people travel home to reunite with their families.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on February 10 this year. The festival holiday this year runs from February 10 to 17, one day longer than in previous years.

An estimated 9 billion passenger trips are likely to be made during the 2024 travel rush period, according to the country's transport ministry.

Of the total, 7.2 billion trips or about 80 percent will be made by self-driving, while 1.8 billion trips will be made via railways, highways, waterways, and civil aviation, the ministry said.

(With input from Xinhua)