THE newly-launched high-speed rail between the mainland and Hong Kong has recorded about 880,000 passenger trips since it was put into use two weeks ago, the rail service operator MTR Corp. said Sunday. Since it started the service Sept. 23, the Hong Kong Section of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) has witnessed about 880,000 passenger trips to and from Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and train service operations are smooth, MTR said in a press release Sunday night. During the National Day and related holiday period alone, namely from Sept. 28 to Oct. 7, the high-speed rail served a total of around 650,000 passenger journeys between Hong Kong and different cities on the Chinese mainland. The cumulative number of tickets sold, including those sold in the pre-sale period, exceeded 1 million. “The high-speed rail provides comfortable and convenient cross-boundary train services for passengers traveling between Hong Kong and mainland cities,” MTR CEO Lincoln Leong said, adding that “train services are generally smooth.” The cross-boundary high-speed rail connects Hong Kong with 44 stations on the Chinese mainland without interchange, including six short-haul stations and 38 long-haul stations. The National Day holiday came shortly after the opening of the high-speed rail and was a great challenge to the new railway, MTR Operations Director Adi Lau said, adding that MTR set up a special task force operating every day during the early days of operations at Hong Kong West Kowloon Station in order to respond immediately to different issues, including optimizing passenger flow management and queuing arrangements. (China Daily) |