Summary：In celebration of the first anniversary of the "Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong" High Speed Rail (Hong Kong Section) ...

Monday is the first anniversary of the commencement of passenger service of the Hong Kong section of the "Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong" High-Speed Rail.

To mark this milestone, passengers passing through Hong Kong West Kowloon Station on Monday were presented with small gifts.

From opening in September 2018 until August, the Hong Kong section has carried an average of 45,000 daily passenger journeys on weekdays, while average daily patronage on weekends is 62,000 passenger trips. The number of outbound tours on the Hong Kong section has soared to 5,500 and the number of tourists joining the tours has reached nearly 220,000, MTR statistics showed.

"Since the Hong Kong section commenced passenger service, we have progressively rolled out service enhancements, including increasing the number of long-haul trips per day from 13 to 17, and increasing the number of Chinese mainland destinations connected from Hong Kong without interchange to 58," MTR said in a statement.

MTRhas added 16 sets of machines for passengers to collect tickets purchased from 12306.cn, the online ticketing platform for high–speed rail in the mainland, and more ticketing counters operated by China Railway (Hong Kong) Holdings Limited.

At the end of December 2018, 12306.cn enhanced its service. Passengers in Hong Kong can create an account with a valid email address, and more people can make use of this platform more effectively to purchase high-speed rail tickets.

Looking ahead, MTR said the company will continue to explore ways to further enhance high-speed rail service to meet passengers’ expectations, said Cheris LeeYuen-ling, chief of operating-high speed rail and intercity at MTR Corporation.

To commemorate the first anniversary celebration of the Hong Kong high-speed rail service, from Oct 24 until Dec 3 the company will partner with travel agents to offer a number of individual travel packages and tours at discounted prices to various hotspots such as Guangzhou, Huizhou, Zhaoqing in Guangdong province and Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, to let more passengers experience the fun of high-speed rail travel.

Advance booking is required and is available starting now for discounts, MTR said.