Hong Kong to offer direct high-speed rail access to 16 more mainland Chinese stops

Travellers from Hong Kong will have direct high-speed rail access to 16 more mainland Chinese destinations, including Nanjing, Wuxi and Hefei, from January 26, the MTR Corporation has said. The city’s rail operator also said on Sunday that the sleeper train service to Shanghai’s Hongqiao station would be upgraded from four pairs a week to running daily in response to strong demand. Tickets for the upgraded services and extra stops will be available for pre-purchase online from Monday this week. The extra high-speed rail stops, which primarily cover the Yangtze River Delta region and Guangdong province, increase the number of direct-access destinations to 110. The nine new stops in Guangdong are Qingyuan, Huidong, Huizhou South, Shantou South, Huilai, Lufeng East, Lufeng South, Chaonan and Xingning South. Two additional stops – Nanjing and Wuxi – are in Jiangsu province. Nanjing is the ancient capital of the “Six Dynasties” and has profound historical and cultural significance, while Wuxi is known as the “Pearl of Taihu Lake”. Three of the new stops are located in the coastal province of Fujian – Quanzhou East, Quanzhou South and Fujian South. The other two are Hefei in Anhui and Miluo East in Hunan. While fares and timetables for the new destinations had yet to appear on the MTR Corp’s website by Sunday night, ticketing platform Trip.com advertised a one-way seven-hour journey from West Kowloon to Nanjing South for the price of HK$943 (US$120.95). Under the current service, passengers from Hong Kong need to transfer to a train at Shenzhen North. The trip takes about eight hours and costs around HK$940. Travellers heading to Wuxi from Hong Kong could also buy a direct fare for HK$1,042, with a journey duration of about eight hours, according to Trip.com. In comparison, a direct flight from Hong Kong to Wuxi’s Sunan Shuofang International Airport would cost around HK$800 and take under three hours. Jeny Yeung Mei-chun, the MTR Corp’s CEO, said the service upgrade was another step to support national development. “MTR has worked closely with governments of the two sides, as well as mainland railway authorities, to continuously add new destinations and enhance services, further facilitating cross-boundary travel, unlocking the economic potential of [the high-speed rail service], and supporting national development,” she said. Transport minister Mable Chan earlier revealed the West Kowloon high-speed rail terminus hit a record high of 137,000 daily passengers on December 27. Steve Huen Kwok-chuen, executive director of EGL Tours, told the Post that the expanded rail service would benefit Hong Kong’s tourism operators. His company currently offered itineraries that included Wuxi, via flights to Hangzhou or Shanghai, and had about a dozen tours via high-speed rail to cities in Guangdong province, he said. Huen added that tours to Fujian province relied on a mix of rail and flight options to get there. “If the high-speed rail journey is within two to five hours, it would be more easily accepted by our customers and easier for us to arrange our itineraries,” he said. “However, if the destination is too far and the journey takes a long time, the high-speed rail fares might sometimes be even more expensive than flights, so we might not consider that.” The MTR Corp’s service changes include an additional pair of round-trip trains that will operate daily between Hong Kong and Shanghai Hongqiao station, with stops at Hefei, Nanjing and Wuxi. It also planned to upgrade the popular sleeper train service to Shanghai to a daily service. The service currently consists of four pairs of trains running weekly from Friday to Monday. Separately, short-haul round-trips between Hong Kong and Guangzhou South will be increased from 19 to 24 pairs per day. The routes connecting Hong Kong and Chaoshan, Xiamen and Fuzhou will serve more destinations in the Chaoshan region after the start of the Guangzhou-Shanwei and Shantou-Shanwei railways on the mainland. A pair of round-trip trains connecting Hong Kong and Xiamen will also be extended to Fuzhou station, adding stops at Fuzhou South, Quanzhou South and Huizhou South. Sara Leung Fong-yuen, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Tourism Industry Employees General Union, said that adding more long-distance destinations would boost the local tourism industry as travellers from those places would be more likely to stay longer and spend more. “Only tourists who stay overnight can bring greater economic value. They will spend more on accommodation, eat more meals and have a bigger appetite to shop,” she said. “It’ll bring the industry closer to achieving business growth similar to pre-pandemic levels.” But Leung said the added convenience could pose a challenge to Hong Kong’s tour agencies, as residents might choose to travel on their own instead of signing up for trips. A Post reporter spoke to several travellers at West Kowloon station about the expanded service, including technician Luk King-fai. Luk, who is in his fifties, said he would consider travelling to the new destinations if he felt they had interesting tourist attractions. “I would actually like more destinations that could be reached in five to six hours,” he said. “For me, [destinations such as Nanjing and Wuxi] are relatively less popular.” But a 60-year-old traveller surnamed Chan said she only cared about stops for Dongguan, her hometown, as she mostly crossed the border to visit her relatives. “In terms of travelling, I would prefer Japan or South Korea,” the catering worker said, adding she felt those destinations were more interesting. Banking industry employee Toby Cheuk, 40, said she usually travelled to the mainland to visit relatives and would love to see the addition of more stations in her hometown of Shanwei.

Hong Kong to offer direct high-speed rail access to 16 more mainland Chinese stops

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Sleeper train service from Hong Kong to Shanghai will also be upgraded to daily runs due to strong demand, MTR Corp says

Sleeper train service from Hong Kong to Shanghai will also be upgraded to daily runs due to strong demand, MTR Corp says