HK section of highspeed rail needs time to draw riders: analyst

The Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link marked its first year of operation on Monday with a decline in ridership in recent months, which experts said shows the line needs more time to attract regular passengers.

They also said the Hong Kong section has great potential to attract more passengers from the Chinese mainland amid the rise of the GuangdongHong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Continuous unrest in Hong Kong in recent months has affected the operation of its transportation section. As of June, average daily trips on that section exceeded 46,000 during weekdays and surpassed 64,000 during weekends, according to a statement sent to the Global Times by MTR Corp on Monday.

However, these figures fall short of the estimate of average daily trips of 80,100 given by Hong Kong’s Transport and Housing Bureau in August 2018.

“Passenger volumes had been growing steadily as of June,” read the statement. “But the figures in July and August have slumped.”

The passenger volume of the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail hit a record low in August with daily trips of 37,623, down 36 percent from the peak, according to media reports.

Though recent passenger volume has decreased, MTR noted the overall service of the high-speed railway was smooth in its first year. The company decided to cooperate with tourism industries and roll out more preferential ticket policies to attract passengers.

“Improving operating efficiency and building up passenger volume need time,” said Zhao Jian, an expert on railway economics at the Beijing Jiaotong University. Given that the construction of the Greater Bay Area is speeding up, it is reasonable for the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail to achieve its goal in the future, said Zhao.