High-speed rail offers new multi-ride tickets

The high-speed rail is introducing two new types of multi-ride tickets today, namely the 20-ride ticket and 30-day ticket, offering discounts of up to 36 percent.

The Hong Kong West Kowloon Station will serve as the starting point for these trips, with destinations limited to 10 short-distance stations within the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong section.

These stations include Futian, Shenzhen North, Guangmingcheng, Humen, Qingsheng, Dongguannan, Changping, Dongguan, Guangzhounan and Guangzhoudong.

Passengers can now purchase these multi-ride tickets, either a 20-ride ticket allowing for 20 trips within 90 days or 30-day ticket for 60 trips, through the mainland railway official 12306 website or mobile application.

Each multi-ride ticket is only valid for a designated station and passengers must activate the ticket within 30 days of purchase or it will become invalid and a full fare refund will be issued.

Discounts offered for these new tickets range from four percent to 36 percent depending on the ticket type, destination and seat class.

The 20-ride ticket provides an 11 percent discount at most while the 30-day ticket offers up to a 36 percent discount.

To streamline the ticketing process, MTRC has simplified the steps for purchasing and using these tickets. Passengers can easily buy tickets and reserve seats through the 12306 platform, ticket machines or boarding gates at mainland stations. For a 20-ride ticket, passengers can book up to four trips at once and for a 30-day ticket, they can book up to 10 train trips.

Reservations can be canceled at any time before departure.

The introduction of these new ticketing arrangements is a response to the growing demand for cross-border travel. MTRC said it aims to provide travelers who frequently travel to and from the mainland with a more convenient and cost-effective ticketing system.

Meanwhile, the demand for longer operating hours at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau ports should not be placed above the safety of rail services, lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu said.

The government announced on Tuesday that Lo Wu port will extend its operating hours to 2am on February 10 and 12 after celebration activities on February 9 and 11, while Shenzhen Bay port will operate round-the-clock between February 9 and 13.

Speaking on a radio program yesterday, Zhang said the East Rail Line cannot extend service hours for so many days due to the current regulations on maintenance and safety, which require some maintenance work to be completed within 72 hours.

Zhang believed the routine maintenance of the East Rail Line would mainly be conducted during the daytime of February 10.