SHANGHAI Railway Bureau announced 67 more trains will be brought into service to handle a surge of passengers during the National Day holiday.

The bureau estimates over 25 million passengers from the Yangtze River Delta region will take trains during the holiday, up 8.2 percent on last year.

More than 11 million vehicles will use the city’s expressways during the holiday, a 12 percent rise over the 2016 holiday, Shanghai Road Administration Bureau said yesterday.

Just as for the past six years, expressways will be toll-free to vehicles with not more than seven seats during the holiday.

September 30 and October 1 are expected to be the busiest days for the city’s expressways and elevated roads, and on some sections queues will stretch for up to 3 kilometers on the afternoon of September 30.

From 8am to noon on October 1, the heaviest congested areas in the outbound direction are predicted for G2, G40, G50, G15 and G60 expressways, as well as on some sections of the Middle Ring Road, Yan’an Elevated Road and Humin Elevated Road.

A 19 and 21 percent rise of the traffic volume on the city’s expressways over average workdays is expected respectively on September 30 and October 1.

The traffic peaks will return on the afternoons of October 7 and 8 when people come back to the city, and on some expressways linking Shanghai and neighboring provinces peak hours can last till after 8pm, according to Shanghai Road Administration Bureau.

The bureau advised residents to avoid traveling by car to out of town on September 30 and October 1 and to use public transportation wherever possible during the holiday.

The railway authority predicted that the largest number of passengers will be seen at railway terminals on October 1.

To meet surging demand, more trains to Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Nanchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou, among other cities, will depart from Shanghai from September 28 to October 8.

A record number of tourists are expected over the holiday due to it being a day longer than normal because the Mid Autumn Festival holiday coincides with the National Day week this year.

Customized and in-depth tours are the most popular choices, travel agencies said.

A record 650 million will travel within the country, and more than 6 million will visit overseas destinations during the holiday, Shanghai-based online travel operator Ctrip said.

During the holiday, the price of air tickets will also surge with the peak coming on October 1.

“It is a new trend because the highest price of air tickets usually appear on September 30 and drop daily during the holiday in the past, but the long holiday makes quite a number of tourists choose to fly on October 1,” said Zhou Wu’an, an employee of Spring Airlines.

A ticket from Shanghai to Kunming, Yunnan Province, is priced at 1,660 yuan (US$255) on October 1, and it plummets to 350 yuan on October 10. While a ticket from Shanghai to Osaka, Japan, costs 5,070 yuan, and that price drops to 609 yuan after the holiday.

Beijing, Shanghai, Sanya, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu and Chongqing are among the most popular domestic destinations, according to Mafengwo, a travel website.

While Japan and Thailand are the top overseas destinations for Chinese independent travelers during the holiday.