THE trip from Guangzhou to the terminus at West Kowloon Station in Hong Kong will take 78 minutes, a recent trial run of a high-speed train on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed railway showed.

Friday’s test run was the first time that the operator HKMTR had run the train between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

On Friday, several trains were run between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, stopping at Humen Station, Shenzhen North Station and Futian Station.

Since the high-speed rail line was put into service this year, travelers from Hong Kong have been able to take high-speed direct trains for short trips to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, or longer trips to other major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan.

The Hong Kong government said travelers on the cross-border high-speed rail link will be able to buy tickets to all destinations on the mainland at the Hong Kong terminus.

West Kowloon Station will have 28 ticket counters, including five counters where travelers can buy tickets to mainland cities. All of the tickets will be ID-based, and travelers can make purchases at counters or via machines, phone calls or websites.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed trains are scheduled to run in the third quarter of 2018. The rail line has seven stations, namely Guangzhou South Station, Qingshen Station, Humen Station, Guangmingcheng Station, Shenzhen North Station, Futian Station and Kowloon West Station in Hong Kong. The maximum speed of trains on the line will be 200 kilometers per hour.

(Han Ximin)