Passengers on an escalator at Nanjing Railway Station.

A rail staff helps a baby wear a mask while traveling on the Hefei rail section in the Yangtze River Delta region.

The Yangtze River Delta region recorded more than 24 million rail passenger trips during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday travel rush, China Railway Shanghai Group announced on Thursday.

The rail travel rush for the eight-day holiday lasts 11 days, from September 28 to October 8.

Between September 28 and October 7, 24.03 million railway trips were made in the region, or more than 2.4 million daily on average.

On October 1, the Mid-Autumn Festival and also the first day of the National Day holiday, over 3 million rail trips were recorded in the region, the highest single-day volume since this year's Spring Festival, according to the group.

In total, an extra 981 trains were put into operation to satisfy the surging demand between September 28 and October 7, the group said.

With the waning of the pandemic and the reopening of tourist attractions, there has been a significant increase in railway passengers over the holiday, the group said.

The combined traffic flow of family visits and tourists pushed up the figures, the group said.

On Thursday, the last day of the holiday, an estimated 2.5 million passengers are expected to board trains in the region, and an additional 215 trains will be operated to cope with demand, the group said.

Meanwhile, seven railway stations in Shanghai are expected to receive 480,000 arriving passengers on the day.

To cope with the crowds, the Shanghai Railway Station, Hongqiao Railway Station and Shanghai South Railway Station have opened waiting rooms overnight and extra staff have been arranged to guide passengers.

An extra 45 trains will be in service on directions such as Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou on Thursday to ease railway traffic.

Passengers are reminded to wear masks during their trips and cooperate with temperature and health QR code checks.

A rail staff guides passengers at Huzhou Railway Station.