Editorial | Expanded Hong Kong-mainland rail links can be engine of growth

The additional stops, which primarily cover the Yangtze River Delta region and Guangdong province, increase the number of direct-access destinations to 110. These include Hefei in Anhui and Miluo East in Hunan. Travellers can also reach as far as Nanjing and Wuxi in Jiangsu province without transfers. In response to strong demand, the sleeper train service to Shanghai’s Hongqiao station will also be increased from four pairs a week to running daily.

It will be up to individual travellers to choose whether to travel by air or rail. Currently, a direct train journey to Wuxi takes eight hours at the cost of HK$1,042 (US$134), while a flight cuts the trip to under three hours for around HK$800. Travel agencies have welcomed the expansion and are expected to study the feasibility of new offers in light of costs and benefits.

The expanded network offers travellers more options and further unlocks the economic potential of the high-speed rail service amid the city’s intensifying economic and social integration with the mainland. The increase in longer-distance destinations can benefit local tourism and related industries as travellers from those places tend to stay longer and spend more.

Passengers using the cross-border high-speed rail made a record 30 million-plus trips last year, a 17 per cent rise from 2024. The West Kowloon rail terminus reached a new single-day record of 140,000 passenger trips shortly before the new year. Cumulative patronage since the service launched in September 2018 has surpassed 100 million journeys, proving the city’s HK$84.4 billion railway project linking Hong Kong to the national network to be a worthy venture. Hopefully the high-speed railway will act as an engine of growth and further fast-track cross-border integration and economic development.