Daily limit on tickets for high-speed rail link connecting Hong Kong and mainland China to be removed from Monday: transport chief
- Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung reveals move a day after city announced it would drop all Covid-19 curbs for cross-border travellers
- Lam also says authorities are ‘hoping to gradually and orderly restart’ long-haul train services
A daily limit on the number of tickets for the high-speed rail link connecting Hong Kong and mainland China will be removed from Monday, but authorities are undecided on when to resume long-haul cross-border train services, the city’s transport chief has revealed.
Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung on Saturday said the decision was made as a result of mutual agreement between the government, the railway operator and its mainland counterpart, a day after the city announced it would drop all Covid-19 curbs for cross-border travellers.
“With the full opening of borders [with the mainland] on February 6, [we] have unanimously agreed to lift the limit on the number of high-speed rail tickets available for sale per day starting from the same day,” Lam said on his official blog.
“I know that everyone is concerned about when the long-haul service will resume. My colleagues and relevant units are actively coordinating and consulting each other, hoping to gradually and orderly restart the long-distance service as soon as possible.”
The Hong Kong-mainland high-speed railway resumed services last month after it was suspended for three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tickets were limited to 10,000 per day, while only short-haul services connecting with Shenzhen and Guangzhou returned.
A check by the Post on the centralised mainland ticket-selling website 12306 showed tickets were available for all short-haul destinations in the coming two weeks, except three direct services to Guangzhou South from February 16 to 18.
After the full border reopening, Hong Kong students living on the mainland will begin returning to classrooms in the city from next Wednesday, starting with secondary schools, while all cross-border checkpoints, including Lo Wu, Heung Yuen Wai and Lok Ma Chau, will resume services.
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A daily quota of 60,000 travellers in each direction – set for some land-crossing points – will end at midnight on Sunday, and only residents who have been overseas or to Taiwan in the week before they enter the mainland will need to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test within 48 hours of departure.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that the government had made sufficient preparations for the full reopening with the mainland on Monday. He said he believed there would not be bottlenecks at the control points as people gradually began regular travel once again.
Lee added that he had discussed with the chief secretary about the preparation works and departments would be ready on Monday to deal with any problems swiftly.
Transport chief Lam said he had advised the MTR Corporation to prepare for the resumption of the Lo Wu train services and closely monitor the flow of people and the situation at the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau checkpoints, in order to implement passenger management measures and adjust the frequency of services if needed.
He also suggested that travellers should try using the new Heung Yuen Wai-Liantang crossing, as it was the first land-based point in Hong Kong which had direct access facilities for both passengers and vehicles.
The facility was designed so that users could take public transport, private cars or walk through a pedestrian subway to reach the control point for immigration clearance.
“With the scrapping of the PCR requirement, the opening of all border points with no limit on the number of travellers, I believe more citizens and tourists will be drawn to travelling between Hong Kong and the mainland, and this will encourage more interactions on economic, social and cultural aspects between both places,” he added.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body, said the full reopening of borders would lead to family reunions and business exchanges between the two places, speed up economic recovery and promote the development of tourism.
Regarding a pre-departure rapid antigen test requirement for overseas and Taiwan arrivals, Tam said he believed the measure would be scrapped in future if there was no rebound in infections, adding that the rule was reciprocal as some places also had similar restrictions.
