This photo taken on Feb 3, 2023 shows ticket barriers at the Lo Wu Station of Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in Hong Kong, south China. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

MTR Corporation plans to provide 228 additional rides every week during off-peak hours on five local lines starting from Jan 22, and enhance check-in and bag drop services on the Airport Express, aiming to help local and outbound passengers enjoy seamless trips, the company revealed on Monday.

Train arrangements during the upcoming Lunar New Year will also be released soon, said the company’s management at a media reception.

With the new schedule, intervals of trains traveling from North Point to Po Lam, and from Tiu Keng Leng to LOHAS Park for the Tseung Kwan O Line, will be shortened to five and 10 minutes respectively. The enhancement will be implemented from 8 pm to midnight, Monday to Thursday.

In view of the heated discussion about extending train services to cater for the large crowds expected during Lunar New Year, Lee said the MTR will actively work with the government in this regard and arrangements will be announced in due course

South Island Line’s train frequency from 4 pm to 5 pm on weekdays will be increased to every five minutes.

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Services on the Tuen Ma Line will be intensified on Saturday as the train’s interval will be reduced from seven to six minutes, from 1:15 pm to 4:30 pm. The Tung Chung Line will have more trains from 10 am to noon and from 5 pm to 7 pm at the weekends and on public holidays.

Train intervals on the Disneyland Resort Line will be reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes from 6:15 am to 7:25 am and from 10:30 pm to 0:45 am  every day when the resort opens.

Passengers will also be able to check the arrival time of trains on the Disney line via the MTR mobile app within this year, said Cheris Lee Yuen-ling, chief of Operating and Metro Segment of MTR Corporation. The “Next Train” function is now available for MTR’s 10 main rail lines.

In view of the heated discussion about extending train services to cater for the large crowds expected during Lunar New Year, Lee said the MTR will actively work with the government in this regard and arrangements will be announced in due course.

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This year, Airport Express is set to launch a series of service enhancements to cater the growing number of passengers traveling to and from the Hong Kong International Airport.

Paul Wong Kah-ming, MTR’s chief of Airport Segment, revealed the Airport Express’s in-town check-in services, which allow passengers to get boarding passes and drop luggage at the service counters opened at MTR stations, will be extended to Kowloon Station “soon”.

Currently, the service is only available at Hong Kong Station and exclusively for passengers taking Cathay Pacific flights.

Wong said MTR will continue to work with the Airport Authority Hong Kong and airline companies, aiming to invite more air carriers to offer check-in services at Airport Express’ stations.

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Also, MTR plans to provide a more seamless experience for passengers by introduce self-help luggage services at Airport Express stations. Passengers who are eligible to complete check-in procedures online can also have their luggage settled by themselves, instead of visiting a service counter under the current mode.

The self-bag drop service will be launched soon, said Wong.

MTR also revealed that it will support more types of contactless credit cards to pay the fare before the third quarter this year, as well as deploying roving staff teams in more MTR stations to provide proactive and timely supports to passengers in need.

Overall, MTR’s train schedule in 2023 recovered to about 90 percent of the pre-COVID level, the company said. Local and cross-boundary passenger traffic rebounded respectively to over 90 percent and over 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

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The city’s high-speed railway service, which is also operated by MTR, carried more than 20 million passengers last year, hitting a record high since bullet trains began operation in Hong Kong in 2018. Among the passengers, over 52 percent were Chinese mainland visitors.

Over 80 percent of travelers using the high-speed railway service were heading for destinations in Guangdong province, resulting in a 10 percent year-on-year growth of passenger traffic in short-haul trips last year.