BEIJING - The Spring Festival travel rush, starting Jan. 13 this year, has witnessed 302 millon rail trips made by Chinese passengers as of Wednesday, China Railway Corporation (CRC) said Thursday.

This represents an increase of 10.1 percent from the same period in 2016, according to the CRC.

On Wednesday alone, more than 9.28 million train passenger trips were made.

About 9 million passenger trips were expected to be made by train on Thursday alone, and the CRC will schedule 669 additional trains on Thursday.

About 2.98 billion trips are predicted to be made during China's 2017 Spring Festival travel rush by different modes of transport between Jan. 13 and Feb. 21, up 2.2 percent from the same period in 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission said last month.

Spring Festival fell on Jan. 28 this year, and is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar.

During Spring Festival, hundreds of millions of people go back to their hometowns, putting huge stress on the transport system despite significant improvement in infrastructure over the last few years.