News Stories:

Click-on these handy "jump links" to quickly access the news item
you're looking for.

1. Three cities on KCRC list

1. Three cities on KCRC list

A surge in passenger numbers, coupled with an increase in market share, has prompted the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) to consider launching express services to three new mainland destinations. KCRC intercity passenger services general manager Carmen Li said a new weekly route would start early next year to Jiujiang, in Jiangxi province. The journey time between Hong Kong and Jiujiang would be 18 hours. ``We are also mulling extending the services to Guilin [in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region] and Xi'an,'' Li said, adding that the plans were still in a preliminary stage. ``For the Jiujiang route, we have a much more definite time frame - the end of this year or early next.'' She said the new routes were being considered after the total number of passengers using the existing through-train services to Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing rose 5 per cent last year to 2.1 million. Daily passenger numbers climbed 9 per cent to 5,820. Li said the KCRC's market share of through-transport services had risen from 20 per cent in 2000 to 21.4 per cent last year. She said the KCRC applauded moves to introduce high-speed trains, including the possibility of magnetic levitation vehicles, on routes between Hong Kong and Shanghai and Beijing. ``We welcome the development. A lot of people find 24 and 28 hours a bit long,'' she said referring to the current journey time from these cities to Hong Kong. The KCRC also plans to boost frequencies on existing routes between Hong Kong and Guangzhou and Dongguan. An eighth daily return, using double-deck trains introduced in August 1998, will start by year-end.

[Source: Hong Kong iMail, 8 May 2002]