Hong Kong leader optimistic about future of high-speed rail link with mainland China, as record 78,000 catch trains on National Day

Chief Executive Carrie Lam expects Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link to be ‘more attractive’ option as people get used to idea

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A record number of passengers passed through West Kowloon station on Monday. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 2:00pm, 2 Oct 2018Updated: 11:01pm, 2 Oct 2018

The newly opened high-speed railway connecting Hong Kong with mainland China is bound to “become more attractive”, even though passenger numbers have been lower than anticipated, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday.

The Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link was opened on September 23, and, according to the Immigration Department, about 78,000 people crossed the link’s West Kowloon checkpoint on China’s National Day holiday on Monday.

The figure – comprising 59,000 inbound travellers and 19,000 going outbound – set a new daily record since the line opened, just exceeding the 75,517 passengers it carried on its first day.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam would like to see more than 80,000 people a day use the high-speed service. Photo: Winson Wong

But the 78,000 figure was still below the government’s prediction of 80,000 passengers a day.

Mainland Chinese visitors accounted for more than 70 per cent of both the arrivals and departures. Before a weekly meeting of her cabinet, the Executive Council, Lam was asked if the line was falling short of expectations.