Railway stations in the Yangtze River Delta regions saw off 68.7 million passengers in July, setting a historical high, said China Railway Shanghai Group on Thursday.

The three stations in Shanghai saw off more than 12 million people, accounting for 17.5 percent of the total, the group said.

Among all railway stations in the delta region, Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station ranked the second as 6.57 million people left town from there in July. 

The first was Hangzhou East Railway Station in Zhejiang Province which sent off 6.74 million people.

July and August are considered the summer travel peak as students, tourists and people visit families and friends.

In only two days in July did the railway stations in the delta region have passenger flows of less than 2 million.

In July, China railway dispatched 1,058 temporary extra trains to ease the pressure on popular routes such as the Shanghai-Beijing, Hefei-Fuzhou and Shanghai-Kunming lines.

The new high-speed train route from Shanghai to Lanzhou in northwest Gansu Province which opened on July 10 was popular.

By July 31, the passenger load factor of the line reached 82.4 percent. More than 42,000 people chose to take the high-speed train to the northwest.