‘Part of history’: Hong Kong MTR’s cross-border through-train service ‘effectively cancelled’ as high-speed rail link gets go-ahead to reopen
- Legislators say more than 110-year-old service is unlikely to go on, with other faster links now available for same price
- Inclusion of Guangzhou East station in city’s high-speed rail link sounds death knell for through-train service, they add
Hong Kong’s historic intercity through-train service is effectively cancelled, lawmakers have said, as the city’s rail operator announced the route suspension would continue despite a high-speed link to mainland China resuming on Sunday.
Legislator Michael Tien Puk-sun, former chairman of the now defunct Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, on Thursday said through-train operations were unlikely to continue given Guangzhou East station was now linked to Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.
“The intercity through-train service will no longer be operated, it is a part of history,” he said, adding the line was effectively cancelled.
Fellow lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu, an engineer who served as operations manager at the MTR Corporation, agreed with Tien and said staff for the service had been transferred to other posts.
Faster links than the more than 110-year-old route were now available for the same ticket price with the addition of the high-speed rail terminating at West Kowloon, he explained.
“There is actually no special reason for both routes to still be operating at the same time,” Zhang said.
The legislator’s remarks followed announcements by the government and the MTR Corp that the high-speed rail service at West Kowloon station would resume on Sunday after it was suspended at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020.
It covers direct travel to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as the Guangzhou East station, a previous stopping point for the through-train service. New stops are also available at Dongguan and Dongguan South.
