“We will continue to work hard to maintain the important transport hub status of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminus as the country’s southern gateway,” he said.
Lam joined Jacob Kam Chak-pui, CEO of the MTR Corporation, in handing out souvenirs to the first batch of passengers set to board the two trains at West Kowloon.
China Railway announced earlier in June that it would run overnight high-speed sleeper trains between Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai from this Saturday, with the services to operate from Friday to Monday each week.
The train to Beijing departed from Hong Kong on time at 6.24pm, with the service for Shanghai set to leave at 7.49pm. Both will arrive the next morning.
The former is expected to take about 12½ hours and the latter will be 11 hours, halving overnight rail travel times while offering both regular seats and a range of sleeper cabins.
Chung Hung-ki, 75, a retiree who was one of the 35 members joining the first tour organised by China Travel Service (Hong Kong) to Beijing on the new sleeper trains, said he was very excited.
The eight-day tour costs HK$2,999 (US$384 ) per person, with all slots snapped up within two days.
“I travelled to Beijing around 10 years ago with my wife. We love travelling and would never have imagined that we could take a sleeper train to the capital,” Chung said, adding he hoped to take it again with his children in the future.
Hui Fan-yan, a retired coach of the Hong Kong, China Association of Athletics Affiliates, also anticipated he would get a good night’s sleep during the journey.
“Although my wife and I will return by flight, it’s exciting to try riding on the sleeper trains for the first time as I can sleep through the journey,” he said.
Retiree Lo Chan-Fai, 80, said the experience of travelling by high-speed rail was vastly different to that of the older trains he had taken before.
Lo was travelling with his wife and two relatives on a trip to Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, before returning on June 21 by sleeper train.
“When flying, there is always the concern about time being wasted for security checks and possible delays,” Lo said.
“This time is the best opportunity as four of us can stay together in one cabin and sleep comfortably for a night, avoiding any awkward situations.”
The MTR Corp said fares on the Beijing-bound train D910 and its return train D909 on Saturday and Monday were HK$1,031 for upper berth sleepers, HK$1,163 for lower berth sleepers and HK$937 for ordinary seats.
Sleeper fares will be about 12 per cent higher on Sunday for the Beijing-bound D910.
Fares on that service will be HK$1,163 for an upper berth and HK$1,306 for a lower one. The standard seat fare will remain at HK$937.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu earlier said the sleeper trains would help to foster the city’s exchanges and integration with mainland China.
