The Chinese Ministry of Railways announced Friday that the country's lunar New Year's traveler peak season started on Jan. 18, six days ahead of its predicted arrival.

That means this year the country's Spring Festival would last from January 18 to March 2, six days longer than the previous schedule.

A police officer maintains order at the railway station in Shijiazhuang, capital of northern China's Hebei Province on January 17, 2008.

The ministry said the total number of railway passengers stood at 3.96 million on January 16.

China's traditional Spring Festival starts on February 7 and during the upcoming over-one-month's annual peak season, millions of people are on the move for family gatherings and then returning to their work cities and towns.

"This year, before the Lunar New Year's eve, the passenger flow would possibly be bigger than the flow after the Lantern Festival -- the 15th day of the Lunar new year," said Wang Yongping, the ministry spokesman.

Wang added that passengers figures for trains bound for Shanghai, eastern Zhejiang's Hangzhou and Ningbo cities are surging.

The ministry forecasted that the country's railways would carry a record 178.6 million passengers, up from 156 million a year earlier.

The Ministry of Railways said last week it planned to arrange an additional 622 trains over the holiday period to increase capacity and would not raise ticket prices, a practice adopted last year and widely applauded.

China is also providing migrant workers with round-trip tickets this year, which had previously been available to students only.

The ministry is organizing four enforcement supervision teams to go nationwide to uncover those breaking the law by reselling train tickets and to guarantee the transportation of important goods and materials including grain.

Northeastern Shenyang city's north railway station ordered that no railway staff was allowed to buy tickets for others, in an effort to prevent ticket reselling, and if any passenger reports such unlawful activities, he or she would get a 200 yuan (US$27.6) prize.

China also expected a record 2.15 billion bus travelers across the country over the upcoming Lunar New Year period. The record - three times as big as the entire population of Europe - represented an increase of five percent from the same period a year earlier, said the Ministry of Communications earlier this week.

Official statistics showed that there would be 22 million passengers taking airlines during the Lunar New Year season, up 10 percent year on year.

Passengers wait for trains at the railway station in Tongnan County in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipal on, January 16, 2008.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2008)