BEIJING -- Some 720 million passenger trips are expected to be made on Chinese railways during this year's "summer transport" from Monday to the end of August, according to the China State Railway Group.

The figure is 8.1 percent higher year on year, with a daily average of more than 11.6 million passenger trips, the company said.

The company will give full play to the role of the country's advanced high-speed railway network, and improve the capacity of traditional passenger trains.

A batch of new Fuxing high-speed trains will be put into use to optimize the country's passenger transport services.

The travel time between some cities will also be shortened. For instance, it will take 25 minutes less for passengers to travel from Hami to Urumqi along the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway.