Explainer | Land or air? The Post weighs up options as China Railway launches new high-speed sleeper train from Hong Kong to Beijing, Shanghai
- New overnight trains with sleeper carriages to take 12½ hours to Beijing and 11 hours to Shanghai
- Service will offer competition to airline travel, although flight times are shorter
High-speed overnight sleeper trains are to run regular services between Hong Kong and Beijing as well as Shanghai and back from June 15, with ticket sales to begin at noon on Wednesday.
China Railway said on Tuesday the new services would cut travel time by half and increase the number of seats to 600, replacing the suspended through train running between Hung Hom in Hong Kong and the two mainland Chinese cities.
It will take around 12½ hours to get to Beijing West railway station and about 11 hours to Shanghai Hongqiao railway station on the services, which will leave from Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminus.
The trains, which will run from Friday to Monday, will have ordinary seats as well as a range of sleeper cabins.
The Post here explains the details of the new services and compares them with alternatives for time and cost from Hong Kong to the two mainland cities.
1. What are the new sleeper trains?
The D910 service will leave at 6.24pm from Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminus and arrive at 6.53am the next day at Beijing West railway station – a journey time of about 12½ hours.
It also stops at five cities along the route – Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Changsha and Shijiazhuang.
The return D909 service will leave Beijing at 8.13pm and arrive in Hong Kong at 8.47am the next morning.
The ticket costs HK$937 (US$120) for a second-class seat, HK$1,031 for an upper deck sleeper and HK$1,163 for a lower-deck sleeper on June 15 and 17.
The price for the latter two will go up on Sunday, June 16 and will range between HK$1,163 and HK$1,448.
Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun said the new arrangement was perfect for business and family travellers.
“I have always dreamed of travelling on overnight trains with my family and my dream has finally come true,” he said.
But Tien added he felt the 9am arrival time of the return train from Beijing was not early enough, which meant travellers might have to take a day off on arrival.
He appealed to the authorities to arrange an earlier arrival time so people would be able to get to their jobs for the usual start time of 9am.
The Shanghai-bound D908 service will leave the West Kowloon terminus at 7.49pm and arrive at Shanghai Hongqiao at 6.45am the next day, a trip of about 11 hours.
The train will stop along the way at Shenzhen, Chaoshan, Xiamen and Hangzhou.
The return D907 train will leave Shanghai at 8.15pm and arrive in Hong Kong at 7.29am the next day, with stops in Hangzhou and Shenzhen.
A second-class seat will cost HK$682, and the ticket price for sleeper carriages goes from HK$878 to HK$1,821 on Saturday, June 15 and Monday, June 17.
The price for sleepers will cost between HK$1,009 and HK$2,128 on Sunday, June 16.
The sale of tickets will open from Wednesday noon on the mainland’s ticketing platform 12306 as well as ticket counters, windows and machines at stations.
2. Alternative travel by air
The Post’s search for flight tickets from Hong Kong to Beijing on website Trip.com found that the price of non-stop one-way tickets to Beijing on June 15 ranged from HK$755 to more than HK$5,000, depending on the departure time, flight duration as well as the airline used.
Most non-stop flights take less than four hours.
The shortest journey was three hours and five minutes, available on two flights – one with Air China and the other on Cathay Pacific Airways.
The price of the Air China flight was HK$2,190 and the Cathay Pacific flight came in at a little over HK$4,000.
The price of non-stop one-way flight tickets from Hong Kong to Shanghai on the same day costs from HK$609 to more than HK$2,500.
Most of them have a duration of less than three hours, with the shortest just two hours and 20 minutes.
Despite the shorter travel time by air, most airlines recommend passengers arrive at the airport at least two hours before departure, which adds to the total travel time.
3. What are the other rail options?
There is only one high-speed direct daily train service running from Hong Kong to Beijing at present.
The G80 train departs at 11am from Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminus and arrives in Beijing at 7.30pm, an eight-and-a-half-hour trip.
But the service only has seating accommodation and lacks overnight services.
The daytime train stops at six cities en route to Beijing – Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Changsha, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Shijiazhuang.
Fares run from 1,179.5 yuan to 3,907.5 yuan.
There are also seven other options, but they all require passengers to change trains along the way.
There is also only one high-speed service without any changes of train between Hong Kong and Shanghai at present.
The G100 train leaves West Kowloon terminus at 11.36am and arrives at Shanghai Hongqiao at 7.25pm.
Additional reporting by Vivian Au
