BEIJING - Some 7.2 million people are expected to travel by train on the last day of the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, according to a statement released by China's railway authority on Wednesday.

The press release on the website said people traveling during the holiday mostly returning today, leading to a passenger number peak on the railways. The railways department plans to put an extra 213 temporary trains into service, so as to increase transport capacity and improve passenger services.

Statistics show that on Tuesday, the railway system handled 6.141 million passengers, an increase of 568,000 passengers, or 10.2 percent compared with the same day last year. Of those, 1.613 million travelled by high-speed train. A total of 4,079 trains were operating on Tuesday, including 187 temporary trains.

Qingming Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday for mourning the dead, falls on Wednesday this year, but the public holiday runs from Monday to Wednesday.