Passengers are pictured at the platform of the Xuzhou East Railway Station in Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, April 29, 2023. (Xinhua/Mao Jun)

BEIJING, April 29-- The number of passenger trips handled by China's railways is expected to hit 19.5 million on Saturday, the first day of the five-day-long May Day holiday, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. shows.

The number is expected to make a new high in terms of single-day passenger traffic, according to the group.

The country reports strong demand for travel during the May Day holiday, the first long holiday after the seven-day-long Spring Festival holiday, which was in late January.

About 120 million domestic trips are expected to be made by Chinese railway passengers from April 27 to May 4 around the May Day holiday, earlier data shows.

China's railways are maximizing their transportation potential and increasing capacity to satisfy people's travel needs, while improving service quality to ensure that passengers have better experiences.

A separate forecast by the Ministry of Transport projected that the total number of passenger trips on the first day of the holiday would hit 56.99 million, an increase of 151.8 percent from the same day of last year.

Road trips were expected to surge by 98.8 percent to 34.5 million, while air trips would rocket by 441.8 percent to 2.04 million, with passenger volume by ship rising by 86.2 percent to 950,000.

Highway passenger car flow is expected to grow by 120.03 percent to 56.35 million units.