Futian to HK trip will take 14 minutes on XRL

A one-way trip between the Hong Kong terminal and the Futian High-speed Railway Station in Shenzhen will take only 14 minutes when the much-anticipated Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) begins operation next year. 

Travel time between Guangzhou and Hong Kong will be halved - from 100 minutes to 50 minutes. 

The high-speed rail has entered the testing phase. Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corporation invited more than 4,000 local residents to visit the four XRL trains at an Open Day event on Oct 8. 

A one-way second-class ticket from Shenzhen to Hong Kong will cost 45 yuan ($6.80). In 2015, the fare from Guangzhou to Hong Kong was HK$210. 

Deng Weiyong, general manager of the rail company's XRL section, said 90 percent of the work on the high-speed rail has been completed. Nine trains with a speed of 200 kph are undergoing tests which will be finished by the end of this year or before the end of the first quarter next year. 

The XRL might start service in the third quarter of 2018, said Deng, and it will pass Futian High-speed Railway Station and Shenzhen North Railway Station in Longhua district. 

It will take only 23 minutes from the Hong Kong terminal to Longhua. The trains are scheduled to depart every three minutes, but the Hong Kong-Shenzhen North Railway Station will begin with trains at 15-minute intervals. 

When opened, the railway can transport Hong Kong residents to 16 major Chinese mainland cities, including Changsha, Wuhan and Chengdu. It will only take about eight hours from Hong Kong to Shanghai and 10 hours to Beijing. 

Each train will have 579 seats, with the second and eighth carriages each providing 68 first-class seats. Each seat will be equipped with power plugs and Wi-Fi connection. In the seventh and eighth carriages, special spacious washrooms are designed for the disabled, enabling wheelchairs and baby care units to be used. 

According to Hong Kong media reports, the XRL trains on the mainland can achieve speeds of between 300 and 350 kph, but the speed will be reduced to 200 kph while passing through tunnels. Since the entire Hong Kong section is in tunnels, the speed in the city will be capped at 200 kph. 

Special materials are used for the trains' windows to create a special effect that will decrease the apparent speed of trains to enable passengers to enjoy the views.