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MTR passenger numbers rebound but fourth wave of coronavirus could see them fall again, Hong Kong group warns
- Number of rides on city’s metro up 12.5 per cent in October to more than 113.5 million
- But Public Transport Research Team expects that to fall over Christmas with spike in Covid-19 cases
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Passenger numbers on Hong Kong’s metro continued to climb in October as social-distancing measures were relaxed, but a concern group warned that could change in the face of a spike in Covid-19 cases.
According to the MTR Corporation, patronage for domestic services was more than 113.5 million last month, up 12.5 per cent from about 101 million in September, rising for the second straight month since the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit the city in July.
Compared with 108.5 million a year ago during the anti-government protests, when stations were regularly vandalised, passenger numbers last month was up by 4.7 per cent.
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But Quentin Cheng Hin-kei, spokesman for the Public Transport Research Team, a commuter concern group, expected passenger numbers to fall in December as a fourth wave of the pandemic took hold in the city.
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Meet the voice you hear every day as you ride Hong Kong's MTR
Meet the voice you hear every day as you ride Hong Kong's MTR
“I expect that the pandemic would worsen very quickly within the next two weeks and the social-distancing measures will be tightened again, and people would start to stay off the streets,” he said.
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“We don’t expect people to go out to celebrate Christmas this year, as I envisage people will be forced to stay at home by all sorts of isolation measures.”
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