BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Saturday marks the last day of the New Year holiday, with railways witnessing a peak in return passenger flow, according to data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

The country's railways are expected to handle 17.45 million passenger trips on Saturday and plan to add 1,343 passenger trains to meet travel demand.

Popular departure cities on the day include Guangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu, while major destination cities include Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

More than 12 million passenger trips were handled by railways nationwide on Friday.

This year's New Year holiday runs from Thursday to Saturday.