XINING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Qinghai-Tibet Railway has transported more than 1.64 million passengers, up nearly 2.6 percent year-on-year, during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush which ended Friday.

China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd. sent 1,643,500 passengers, an increase of 41,400. February 23 was the peak day when 53,500 people took trips by the plateau railway, according to the company. Migrant workers and students constituted the bulk of the trips of the Spring Festival, China's lunar new year which fell on Feb. 5 this year.

China's 40-day Spring Festival travel rush (chunyun) witnessed 2.98 billion passenger trips. A total of 410 million trips were made by rail, a rise of 7.4 percent year-on-year, according to official data.

This year's Tibetan New Year, or Losar, fell on Feb. 5 and coincided with the Spring Festival. Tibet received 511,700 tourists during the 10-day holiday of the Tibetan New Year, up 11.6 percent year-on-year.

China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co., Ltd. is one of the 18 large railway bureaus (groups and companies) managed by China Railway Corporation. It is in charge of railway transportation in Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway spans 1,956 km from Xining, capital city of Qinghai, to Lhasa, capital city of Tibet. It went operational in 2006, linking Tibet with the rest of the country. The railway transported more than 16.3 million passengers in 2018.