Hong Kong, China Railway Iron Out Details for High-Speed Link

(Hong Kong) — The Hong Kong government and the state-owned China Railway Corp. have signed a preliminary agreement on how a high-speed railway connecting the region to the mainland will be operated, as the rail link nears its launch day.

The 140-kilometer (87-mile) Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link is expected to begin operation in the third quarter of this year, hooking up Hong Kong with China’s national high-speed rail network.

According to the agreement signed Monday by Hong Kong Transport Secretary Frank Chan and China Railway General Office Director Han Jiangping, 127 trains will run daily between Hong Kong and the mainland. That includes direct long-haul trains to 17 mainland destinations — the most direct trains announced in a planning document so far.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who witnessed the signing, said in a statement that Monday’s agreement also laid down a “consensus in principle on financial and operational matters by both parties.”

However, according to Chan, Hong Kong and China Railway have not yet reached an agreement on the rail link’s profit-sharing arrangement.

The Express Rail Link was initially slated for completion in 2015. But budget overruns, a corruption investigation, and disagreement over the choice to locate mainland checkpoints within Hong Kong have pushed the rail link’s commissioning date to past mid-2018.

Nevertheless, Secretary Chan said Monday, assuming the Express Rail Link has a 50-year life, the Hong Kong government was “of the opinion that the Express Rail Link would be having a very healthy financial outcome by the end of this cycle.”

The rail link isn’t the only ongoing massive infrastructure project aimed at bringing Hong Kong closer to the mainland. The world’s longest bridge over water, connecting the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau with Zhuhai in Guangdong province, is expected to open to traffic this year.

Contact reporter Teng Jing Xuan (jingxuanteng@caixin.com)