High speed rail from Hong Kong to China to tempt business travellers

China's sprawling bullet train network will extend to Hong Kong on September 23, providing a direct connection to 44 mainland destinations.

With the addition of services from Guangzhou and Shenzhen – the major cities closest to Hong Kong – what’s now a daylong train trip to Beijing would be cut to nine hours.

China’s high-speed rail network is easily the world's largest, stretching for 25,000km, and is a strong competitor for airlines in a market where congested airspace and limited landing slots mean regular flight delays.

The Express Rail Link (XRL) train will connect Hong Kong and mainland China.

Since China’s first bullet-train service connected Beijing to the nearby port city of Tianjin a decade ago, Chinese airlines have steadily lost customers, especially for journeys shorter than 800km – roughly the distance from Hong Kong to Changsha, the capital of Mao Zedong’s home province of Hunan.

“The fact that passengers will get off the train in downtown Hong Kong rather than at the airport on an island and then have to take another train ride to the city will prompt many to choose trains,” said Yu Zhanfu, a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Beijing.

The departure hall area of the Express Rail Link.

There's also a wider commercial benefit at play, Yu explains.

“The high-speed rail strengthens the economic ties between mainland China and Hong Kong. For a lot of Chinese cities, this is a big breakthrough because it is the first time they have a direct link with Hong Kong, the most important hub in southern China.”

Train vs plane

A bullet-train ride can cost less than half the price of a ticket on Cathay to the 11 overlapping destinations, with the biggest savings for routes of less than 800km. Passengers would also save time on pre-boarding security checks required for flights and travel to and from airports.

With 11 of Cathay Pacific’s more than 20 China destinations overlapping with high-speed rail, the Hong Kong marquee carrier stands to be the biggest casualty, especially on flights of less than three hours.

Cathay Pacific didn’t respond to requests for comment on competition from the new rail link.

For many passengers, the train’s wider seats, increased legroom and freedom to move around translate to greater comfort.

Inside the Express Rail Link (XRL) train.

Rail also has an advantage for a city where the typhoon season can play havoc with flight schedules. When Typhoon Mangkhut plowed through the city over the weekend, more than 1,400 flights had to be canceled across the region, according to Flight Aware.

Joyce Leung, a Shanghai-based marketing professional, is willing to give the new high-speed connection from Hong Kong a try, after experiencing first-hand how trains can be a lifesaver when torrential rains led to multiple flight delays during a recent work trip to Beijing.

“I won’t hesitate to book the bullet train during the rainy season,” said Leung before the storm. “While a plane ride is still faster for travelling from Hong Kong to Shanghai, the train is a more predictable choice compared to massive flight delays.”

How high-speed rail changes the transport power balance

Airlines have focused on longer domestic routes where flying has a clear advantage in time, often reducing or canceling services that compete directly with bullet trains.

Last December, the start of high-speed train services between western China’s Chengdu and Xi’an led carriers to cut daily flights between the two cities to about three from several dozens before.

As well as the air advantage over longer distances, planes and trains continue to compete on popular routes such as Beijing-Shanghai, and flights maintain an advantage to cities not connected directly by a high-speed rail service.

Cathay Pacific and its regional airline Cathay Dragon, which flies most of the group’s mainland routes as well as to to nearby destinations such as Japan and Southeast Asia, may have to modify their networks as the group works toward a profit this year after two straight annual losses.

Airlines have the advantage of loyalty from customers who collect frequent flyer miles, but even that may not be a big incentive, according to Ivan Zhou, an analyst with BOC International Holdings in Hong Kong.

“You could possibly get more miles by paying your restaurant bills with a credit card than by flying short haul,” Zhou said.

Also read: When the train beats the plane