Beijing academic urges HK lawmakers to block costly express rail link

Hong Kong should consider improving the existing railway service running between Hung Hom and Guangzhou instead of building a high-speed rail line, according to a leading transport economist in Beijing.

Professor Zhao Jian, from Beijing Jiaotong University's school of economics and management, who has been involved in a Ministry of Railways study on reforming the rail network, said he expected the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express link would be financially 'unsustainable'. He called on legislators to reject the project.

The Hong Kong government originally estimated that the link would cost HK$39.5 billion, but the price is expected to rise. The South China Morning Post reported yesterday that the link was set to be the most expensive high-speed railway in the world per kilometre.

'There are only a couple of high-speed railways making a profit, including the Tokyo to Osaka line, and the rest all lose money,' Zhao said. 'The Beijing to Tianjin high-speed railway would have been broke like the one in Taiwan if it was not subsidised and operated by the government.'

The financial situation of the Beijing-Tianjin railway was not publicly known, he said.

Zhao, who has been researching high-speed railways for years, said they were attractive as long as the journey was no longer than three hours. Otherwise, he said, people preferred taking a plane. 'For me, to travel to Hong Kong from Beijing, I will definitely go by plane,' he said.

But he said the reason he was unconvinced that Hong Kong needed a high-speed railway to connect with Guangzhou was that the journey was too short and had too many stops. 'They can't maximise the benefits of a high-speed railway,' he said. 'There is no point in building it.'