50 minutes to Guangzhou: new express rail station debuts in Shenzhen cutting travel time by 35 minutes

The largest underground railway station in Asia is up and running now, helping to cut the travel time in half from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and putting more pressure on Hongkongers to speed up the construction work for the rail link’s Hong Kong segment.

The Futian railway station, located in Shenzhen’s central business district, has commenced operations yesterday, with 11 Guangzhou bound departures every day at the initial stage.

A train, which departed from the Shenzhen station at 9.21am sharp and travelled at a speed of between 250 to 290km per hour, with portions of the journey briefly exceeding 300km per hour, arrived at Guangzhou South at 10.13 am.

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It stopped at stations in Shenzhen North and Humen for a few minutes, taking about 50 minutes for the full journey, as scheduled.

Travel by train between Shenzhen and Guangzhou via other routes could take up to 35 minutes more.

With the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, after its Hong Kong section is completed, the journey time between Hong Kong and Guangzhou will be reduced from about 100 minutes as at present to 48 minutes, excluding the waiting time.

A family of three from Shenzhen, patronising the Futian station on its first day of service, said it was impressed by the intercity network’s speed and convenience.

Emily Chen, accompanied by husband Gary Shek and their two-year-old daughter Sophie, said she hoped the Hong Kong section would open soon: “So that we don’t have to change trains in Sha Tin when we visit the major shopping areas in Hong Kong in future.”