Yau pointed out that many existing flights between Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai arrived at their destinations late in the morning or after.

“By the time travellers make their way to urban areas from the airport, it’s dusk and the day is almost over,” he said.

“So when people take, say, a five-day holiday, they really just have three full days of sightseeing and enjoying their trips because nearly two days are spent on travelling.”

China Railway announced on Tuesday that it would start high-speed sleeper train services between Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai from June 15, every Friday to Monday. These would replace the older trains running between Hung Hom and the two mainland cities that were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Beijing-bound train will depart at 6.24pm each day and arrive in the capital at 6.53am the next morning. The service to Shanghai will leave at 7.49pm and arrive the following 6.45am.

The upgrade to high-speed would also drastically slash travel times, Yau said, pointing out that the previous Beijing-Kowloon railway trip took at least 24 hours.

He said the new services were likely to benefit business travellers who prioritised punctuality and who would appreciate stations being conveniently located in city centres.

But Yau believed it would be most popular with leisure travellers, especially young people.

“They will enjoy sharing rooms with a few friends and appreciate the scenery along the way,” he said.

But older travellers were likely to enjoy the routes too, and since that age group was more likely to take trips with group tours, Yau said his company would work on offering packages with the new train services. He expected that other travel operators would do the same.

At the West Kowloon station, where tickets went on sale at noon on Wednesday, a 66-year-old housewife with the surname Chow told the Post she had arrived an hour early with her husband so they would be first in line in the queue.

The couple were aiming to travel to Shanghai on June 15.

“The sleeper train is a game changer for us, as we can just sleep through the night and arrive in Shanghai in the morning, in time for dim sum breakfast with our relatives,” she said.

She added the new rail service would also make it easier for the couple to travel with large suitcases, as they would not need to lug them from the airport into the city.

Gianna Hsu Wong Mei-lun, chairwoman of the Travel Industry Council, said the routes would likely help with Hong Kong’s post-pandemic flight capacity issues, as travellers could use of a mix of high-speed rail and flights for longer-haul trips within the country.

“There are now some very popular itineraries for Hongkongers, such as the eastern China route to [places such as] Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou,” she said.

“From Beijing, they could also potentially fly to Harbin or go further west to places like Xinjiang.

Noting that the overnight routes ran from Fridays to Mondays, Hsu said travel agencies understood the operational considerations behind the current schedule, and that the current offering of four days per week was reasonable as an initial trial period.

Tourism lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung said it was hard to estimate how many more tourists the new routes would bring, but surmised that they might incentivise those averse to flying.

“The elderly or families with young children may normally be hesitant about travelling on long flights, so this changes things for them,” he said.

Yiu noted that business travellers would enjoy being able to connect to the internet on the train services, which they could not do on planes.

A number of users of the mainland’s Instagram-like social media platform Xiaohongshu expressed excitement for the new routes.

“This way, you can even save a night on accommodation,” one person said.

Another said: “This is great news for people who are afraid of flying.”

But others felt the cost was similar to, if not more expensive, than some direct flights between the cities, and the train journey was also much longer.

The MTR Corporation said one-way fares to Shanghai and Beijing would range from HK$682 to HK$2,128 (US$87 to US$272), depending on the type of seat, deck and class.

There will be at least 20 non-stop, return flights between Hong Kong and Shanghai on June 15 priced at HK$1,125 to HK$2,700, including taxes and related charges, and 24 such flights to Beijing costing between HK$1,555 and HK$3,000.