More than 130,000 passenger movements were expected at West Kowloon High-Speed Rail Station on October 1 as National Day Golden Week began. Mable Chan, Secretary for Transport and Logistics, said about 120 train pairs were expected at the station that day.
The holiday traffic was expected to run in both directions, with mainland visitors travelling south to Hong Kong and residents heading north. Measures to manage queues and crowds were in place, while extra signs and staff were deployed to answer travellers’ questions. The Transport Department, land boundary control points and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge control point had also activated real-time traffic monitoring.
The Immigration Department forecast about 1.29 million mainland visitor arrivals during the holiday. One visitor from Huizhou, Guangdong, told RTHK that he planned to reach Victoria Harbour by 4pm or 5pm for the fireworks and had backup viewing locations in case his first choice was too crowded.
For travellers planning a later journey, the number of stations directly served on the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail service was scheduled to rise from 113 to 114 on October 11, with Taishan due to be added.