BEIJING — The national railway operator has predicted the number of passengers to continue to grow during the Spring Festival holiday due to rising short-distance travel demand.

The China Railway Corporation said it will add 208 trains on Feb 6 to handle a total of 7.67 million railway trips expected, up 8.5 percent year-on-year.

Local railway bureaus have increased services in remote towns and villages, worked to help passengers transfer to buses and subways, offered better Wifi access and allowed fast security checks for the elderly and disabled.

Around 4.22 million railway trips were made on Feb 5, up 9.6 percent year-on-year.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese go back to their hometowns to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year each year, creating an annual travel rush around the festival that often puts the transport system to the test.

This year’s Spring Festival travel rush started from Jan 21 and will last till March 1, with railway trips expected to hit 413 million in total, up 8.3 percent.