BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- China's railway network is forecast to handle about 83 million passenger trips during the five-day travel surge around the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the national railway operator said on Thursday.

The travel rush period runs from Thursday to Monday, with Saturday expected to be the peak day at roughly 19 million trips, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, over 40 million train tickets for the holiday period had been sold on China's railway ticketing platform 12306.

To accommodate this travel surge, the railway operator has rolled out a peak-hour schedule, with around 13,000 passenger trains running daily on average.

Overnight high-speed trains will operate on major high-speed rail routes such as the Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Harbin lines.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, falls on Saturday this year.