On Monday, the Shanghai Railway Bureau in charge of the region recorded nearly 660,000 passenger departures and arrivals, 7 percent up from the same period last year.

The Bureau ran more than 600 trains Monday, including 214 additional temporary ones. The number of passengers Tuesday taking the bureau's trains was estimated at 650,000.

Pressure on the railways eased a week ago when heavy snow fell in parts of the region, including the provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu. However, as the weather cleared and the temperatures rose, migrant laborers chose to travel for work again. Meanwhile, many universities start new semesters after the Lantern Festival on February 15, and students have joined the flood of travelers.

On Monday, the number of passenger departures and arrivals at the Shanghai Railway Station alone amounted to 90,000 to 100,000, excluding more than 30,000 at the city's two other stations.

Tickets from Shanghai to northwestern Urumqi, southern Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and southeastern Fuzhou, were all sold out but failed to meet the rising demand.

The bureau has added special trains for students and migrant laborers to ensure their safe travel.

This current wave of railway passengers is expected to continue to around February 23.

(People's Daily February 19, 2003)