Chinese railways transported 160 million passengers in July, up 12.8 percent from one year earlier, sending the January-to-July passenger count to 976 million, the Ministry of Railway said Tuesday.

Summer holidays and the Shanghai World Expo contributed to the increase of the passenger volume in July, when Kunming, Nanchang, and Urumqi saw an increase in rail passengers of more than 20 percent year on year, the ministry said in an online statement.

China has the world's largest high-speed rail network with 6,920 km of tracks and more than 10,000 km in new tracks being laid.