Tickets for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link that will transport commuters to and from 30 mainland Chinese cities went on sale on Sept. 10 via online ticketing platforms, telephone hotlines, and the station. More than 6,450 tickets were sold weeks ahead of the express rail link's official opening on Sept. 23.
There were about 1,800 buyers who purchased over 3,500 tickets at the West Kowloon terminal, the South China Morning Post reported, citing official figures from the MTR Corp. Tickets for the first trip to Shenzhen North station at 7 am were all bought by the lunchtime online on Sept. 9. As the clock struck 5 pm, 60 percent of tickets for the first train dated Sept. 23 to Hongqiao station in Shanghai were sold.
Initial announcements for the pre-selling of tickets stated that only tickets for trips on Sept. 23 are available for pre-purchase. Automatic ticketing machines, however, have been dispensing tickets for trips to Beijing between Oct. 3 and 10 according to South China Morning Post.
People who would like to be among the first riders of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link had lined up as early as two days before the ticket pre-selling. An estimated number of 300 people waited on the lines early until the station opened at 8 am on Monday. Travelers were permitted to purchase a maximum number of eight tickets provided they have with them verifiable identity papers and appropriate travel documents issued by officials from the mainland.
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link will provide 127 return trips daily between the mainland and Hong Kong. Of these, 114 return trips will run between the West Kowloon and Futian.
The Hong Kong section of the Express Rail Link extends from the Station in West Kowloon, heading north to the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Boundary, where the infrastructure connects with the mainland station.
The station, located to the north of West Kowloon Cultural District, will be connected via footbridges and subways to Austin Station and Kowloon Station. There will be no transitional stations in the Hong Kong portion of the rail link.
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link measure 26 kilometers long and cost approximately $10.8 billion. Initial plans stated that the rail network would perform 190 trips to and from Hong Kong and mainland China.
In the long term, the station is expected to take a maximum of 254 trips daily depending on the flow of passengers. Estimated travel time between the Hong Kong West Kowloon station and Guangzhou South station would only take 47 minutes. A trip to Beijing, meanwhile, will only take 8 hours and 56 minutes.
