Hong Kong lawmakers have proposed increasing the Airport Express’ ridership by improving the service’s connections to the city’s high-speed rail station and a mega bridge, as well as by maintaining cheaper fares to AsiaWorld-Expo.
Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu suggested on a radio programme on Wednesday that links with the two sites would help to increase passenger flows by encouraging people from mainland China to fly from Hong Kong.
His call followed the MTR Corporation’s proposal on Tuesday to raise Airport Express fares for the first time in eight years, with an average increase of 9.4 per cent.
The company said the increase was to ensure “a sustainable income” to meet rising operational costs and investments required to renew railway assets, adding that there was a need to adjust fares to break even and maintain a “high-quality service”.
“We want to make it more convenient for passengers to transfer to the Airport Express from the West Kowloon high-speed rail station, so that we can achieve transfers between railway systems and planes,” Zhang said.
“We hope to attract more friends from mainland provinces to come to Hong Kong using high-speed rail, then transfer to the Airport Express, where they can then fly internationally from Hong Kong.
“We actually have the conditions to do this geographically.”
