Protest-scarred MTR Corporation promises promotions to entice travellers back to ‘lacklustre’ high-speed cross-border rail link

Daily ridership was 52,111 in first year – more than one-third fewer than the government’s estimate of 80,100

But in August passenger numbers plummeted to just 37,623 per day – with mainland tourists staying away amid protests

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Chairman Rex Auyeung at the MTR Corporation office in Central on Thursday. Photo: May Tse

Published: 8:00am, 21 Sep 2019Updated: 11:13pm, 21 Sep 2019

The MTR Corporation is planning to step up marketing campaigns for Hong Kong’s high-speed cross-border rail link, following a lacklustre first year of operations.

Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen, the MTR chairman, acknowledged that the much-hyped rail link had been affected by more than three months of social unrest, which discouraged mainland visitors and Hongkongers from crossing the border.

“Now we are facing daunting challenges, but it doesn’t mean that we’ll be giving up,” he said. “It’s like going through turbulence — we’ll keep moving towards our destination.

“We’ll roll out some promotion campaigns to stimulate the interest of both tourists and locals for travelling via the high-speed railway. But whether our promotions attract more travellers is beyond our control.”

The HK$84.4 billion (US$10.7 billion) high-speed rail link opened on September 23 last. Latest figures show that until the end of August, it carried a total of more than 17.8 million travellers. Daily ridership was just 52,111 — more than one-third fewer than the government’s estimate of 80,100.