About 440 million trips are expected to be made by rail during the Spring Festival travel rush this year, according to the national railway operator on Wednesday.

A train attendant offers a poster of the Chinese character "Fu", which means good luck, to passengers aboard the G1709 bullet train from North China's Tianjin to Southwest China's Chongqing, Feb 3, 2019, ahead of the Spring Festival. (Photo: Xinhua)

The upcoming 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, will kick off on Jan 10 and end on Feb 28. It will see 32.5 million more trips compared with last year.

Train tickets for the first day of chunyun will go on sale on Thursday. Tickets can be purchased online or by phone 30 days in advance of travel, or at railway stations, ticket agencies and self-ticketing machines 28 days ahead of time, according to the company.

To enhance railway capacity, more than 100 additional high-speed train services will be scheduled to operate each night, the company said.