Sold out

Wallis Wang

High-speed rail tickets from Hong Kong to Guangzhou on Sunday - the restart of services - have sold out.

Up to 5,000 tickets each way between Hong Kong and the mainland opened for sale at noon yesterday, with throngs queuing at West Kowloon Station.

The high-speed rail, resuming after three years of pandemic-induced shutdown, will carry passengers to and from Hong Kong to mainland train stations - including Futian, Shenzhen North (Shenzhenbei) and Guangzhou South (Guangzhounan) as well as the new stop at Guangzhou East (Guangzhoudong).

Thirty-nine trains will travel from West Kowloon to the mainland and 38 from mainland cities to Hong Kong every day.

Tickets from Wednesday to Saturday before the Lunar New Year have also been sold out.

Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung said the number of travelers will be capped at 10,000 a day - half from each side.

"The tickets will be capped initially to ensure a smooth operation. We will consider people's travel demands and the operation of the West Kowloon Station when increasing the quota later," Lam said

He said Guangzhou East station will be popular and the new attractions at West Kowloon - including M+ Museum and Hong Kong Palace Museum - will also attract more tourists to Hong Kong.

But Lam said it is still undetermined when long-haul trains to Beijing will be resumed.

The MTR Corp said electronic ticketing will be implemented after the high-speed rail service resumes when passengers can get on board and travel to various mainland cities using their Home Return Permit.

It reminded passengers not to bring alcohol-based handrub on board - part of anti-terrorist measures - and instead use disinfectant wipes.

Tickets were sold on the mainland's train ticket booking website "12306," which broke down once and failed to show bookings for trains from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Some people said they had difficulty receiving the verification e-mail or SMS message, which is required to buy a ticket.

People using a Hong Kong phone number which was not recognized by the mainland could not receive the verification code sent by the website and they had to switch to a mainland phone number to buy tickets.

Hundreds of people queued at West Kowloon before it opened at 2pm. At least 300 were still waiting to buy tickets at 6pm.

A woman named Lau said: "My mother is 93 years old and is not in good health, so I am eager to return to the mainland to visit her.

"I came to the station from Tai Po as my son said we couldn't buy a ticket online."

Another named Kwong said she arrived at the station at 8am.

"We have to do the verification when buying tickets online and my family members found it difficult. We should be able to buy a ticket after filling in our travel document information, but it did not allow us to do so without verification," she said.

Some people criticized the arrangement after failing to buy a ticket despite waiting for up to three hours.

"Many elderly were waiting at the ticket hall for hours, kneeling or sitting on the ground, while others were queuing outside the station," said a man named Ng. "The MTR arrangement was so bad that they could have told us tickets were sold out."

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said about 520,000 people have registered to go to the mainland through the land border quota system.

The quota between next Wednesday and January 22 was almost full, he added.

Meanwhile, MTR unionists worried that manpower in other stations could be affected after the high-speed rail service resumes, urging the company to hire more staff.

Tourism sector lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung said the daily 5,000 quota each way is appropriate as travelers can also use other ports.

But he urged the government to consider increasing the quota before the Lunar New Year as many people wish to cross the border to reunite with their families in the mainland.

The executive director of the Travel Industry Council, Fanny Yeung Shuk-fan, said inbound tour groups are still suspended in the mainland, probably up to next month.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com