Officials on both sides of Hong Kong-mainland China border can learn from travel chaos
- Day trips between city and mainland in both directions are becoming more common and the authorities must ensure that everything possible is done to accommodate ease of movement
The benefit of hindsight can never undo government blunders stemming from a lack of foresight. But it can at least help prevent the same from happening again, as in the case of the cross-border transport chaos after the New Year’s Eve fireworks.
This is especially important when more day trips are expected under the national drive to intensify integration in the Greater Bay Area.
Reviewing Sunday’s debacle that saw tens of thousands of mainland visitors stranded in the city after the midnight spectacle, Hong Kong officials have pledged better coordination to avoid a repeat during mega events in future.
“We have learned our lesson. We see that entry and exit patterns have changed,” Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki said.
That it has taken such a sorry episode to prompt a higher sense of urgency in tackling the matter is to be regretted. It is not as if the authorities were completely caught off guard by a post-midnight exodus.
They said they had told transport operators to increase services to cope with an outflow of visitors after the countdown. But the city is clearly still underprepared, as reflected in the long queues and crowds at checkpoints and some train and bus stations.