Hong Kong and Shenzhen trains can be rescheduled three times a day for free, and the Hong Kong Futian high-speed rail will now launch a "flexible travel" cross-border service
Starting from August 14th, MTR Hong Kong Limited has launched a "flexible daily change train schedule" for passengers traveling between West Kowloon Station and Futian Station in Shenzhen. Passengers can change to designated trains on the same day for free up to 3 times.
MTR stated that passengers traveling between two stations who wish to change their train numbers can directly use "flexible travel" for free transfer between 45 minutes before the original train departure and 1 hour after departure. Compared to the current high-speed rail passenger regulations, passengers can only enjoy one free ticket change opportunity until 45 minutes after the train departs. "Flexible travel" provides additional convenience, allowing passengers to change their tickets three times for round-trip to Futian, making the journey more flexible.
The Secretary for Transport and Logistics of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Carrie Lam, recently stated that since the full resumption of customs clearance, the daily number of people entering and exiting through land ports has increased from over 400000 in early February to over 800000 over the weekend of early August.
Yang Meizhen, Director of MTR Hong Kong Passenger Services, stated that high-speed rail is a cross-border train service connecting the mainland railway network, with its unique management and operational guidelines. In addition to the efforts of the team, the launch of "Flexible Travel" has also received support and cooperation from mainland railway units and relevant departments of the SAR government. Yang Meizhen stated that with the integration and development of the Greater Bay Area, cross-border short distance travel has become a part of many people's daily lives. MTR hopes to take "flexible travel" as the starting point, continue to explore more convenient passenger services with mainland railway units, strengthen the interconnection and interaction of cities in the Greater Bay Area, promote personnel mobility, and fully leverage the advantages of the one hour living circle.
According to the performance report recently released by MTR, the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail, which resumed operations in the first half of this year, has a passenger volume of about 7.6 million.