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Tuesday, October 03, 2017, 12:33
Coach services resume as Guangdong traffic snarls ease
By He Shusi in Hong Kong
Tuesday, October 03, 2017, 12:33 By He Shusi in Hong Kong

This photo taken on June 13, 2017 shows cross-boundary coaches at Shenzhen Bay Port. (WANG XI / XINHUA)

Cross-boundary coach services between Hong Kong and Guangdong province gradually returned to normal on Monday after being severely disrupted by huge traffic jams, notably on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway, that began over the weekend at the start of the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays on the Chinese mainland.

ALSO READ: China sees double-digit rise in National Day holiday tourism revenue

As the road traffic pressure eased, only slight congestion was reported on major expressways, such as the Humen Pearl River Bridge linking Guangzhou and Dongguan. A search on traffic navigation apps on Monday afternoon showed that a bus journey between MongKok in Kowloon and Foshan city would take less than five hours, compared with up to 16 hours as reported at the height of the traffic congestion in Guangdong on Sunday.

Huge traffic snarls began paralyzing key expressways connecting Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen on Saturday evening

Huge traffic snarls began paralyzing key expressways connecting Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen on Saturday evening, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of cross-boundary bus services on Sunday.

Vehicle queues on highways stretched up to 25 kilometers during the peak congestion hours on Sunday, with coaches being stuck on the roads for more than 15 hours. A bus trip Hong Kong to destinations in Guangdong would normally take less than five hours.

Major travel agencies providing cross-boundary bus services, including Chinalink and China Travel Service (CTS) Hong Kong, said on Sunday they will offer free ticket rescheduling or refunds for passengers affected by the cancellations. The deadline for seeking refunds varies from seven days to one month.

The tourism industry has warned commuters to prepare for serious traffic jams again when the long holiday break on the mainland ends on Oct 8. Alan Chan Chung-yee of Chinalink urged passengers to plan their travel schedules wisely and avoid the peak periods.  

Thousands of passengers were believed to have been affected by the weekend’s disruptions. Some complained that travel agencies had announced the cancellations too late, resulting in them being unable to find alternative solutions.

Legislator Yiu Si-wing, who represents the tourism sector in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and is also deputy chairman of CTS Hong Kong, said the severe traffic congestion had been hard to predict.

He said the jams had started earlier than usual on Saturday night. Many buses were stuck on the expressways on their way back to Hong Kong, and the drivers suffered from fatigue after having been at the wheel for more than 20 hours.

Yiu said although there had been similar delays in the past few years as a result of serious traffic jams in Guangdong during the “Golden Week” holidays, it was the first time that cross-boundary bus services had been scrapped.

He added that travel agencies have also suffered financially. “The ‘Golden Week’ could have been a time for them to earn more. But now, they have lost fixed income and would have to refund travelers due to the suspension of business,” he said.

On the mainland, the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival break has prompted more people to travel, while a toll-free policy for the holidays has attracted more cars on the roads, exacerbating the traffic conditions between Hong Kong and Guangdong, Yiu said.

The number of mainland tourists coming to Hong Kong has also surged. About 206,050 mainland travelers arrived in the SAR on Sunday -- up 9 percent from last year.

Yiu believed that the pressure on highways could be eased and people would have more choices in their mode of travel with the scheduled completions of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge later this year and the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link next year.

READ MORE: Joint checkpoint to ease high-speed rail into Hong Kong


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