Hong Kong West Kowloon station. (Photo by Southcn.com)
As the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area continues to develop, Shenzhen and Hong Kong are establishing closer links.
In late September, the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Line will open. 28 ticket counters in the West Kowloon terminal in Hong Kong will accept WeChat and Alipay, according to the spokesperson for the Hong Kong Railway Group. Ticket machines are not yet providing this service, however.
Reported by Nan & Eric
Edited by Wing & Simon
The spacious West Kowloon Station features clear multilingual signage, guiding passengers onto the high speed train, which cuts travel time from Guangzhou South Railway Station to West Kowloon Station from the current 100 minutes to a mere 48 minutes. The time traveling to Hong Kong from Futian Station in Shenzhen will drop to 14 minutes.
At opening, a total of 114 services will run daily between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, among which 84 will stop at Futian Station and Shenzhen North Station, and 30 at Humen Station and Guangzhou South Station. A train will be available every 15 to 30 minutes.
Moreover, West Kowloon station will connect to 14 cities in mainland China with 13 services every day, the destinations being: Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Guilin, Guiyang, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou, Nanchang, Fuzhou, Xiamen and Shantou.
To travel from West Kowloon Station to the mainland, passengers who enter the station at the ticket office on floor B1 can head down to B3 for the border crossing out of Hong Kong, before going down again to B4 to board the train. For mainland travelers to Hong Kong, they need to go through Mainland exit and Hong Kong entry procedures on B2 before exiting the station.
The Red line is the departure passenger flow and the blue line is the arrival passenger flow.[Graph by Newsgd]
广深港高铁香港段9月下旬通车
西九龙站人工窗口可微信、支付宝购票
（南方日报特派记者 陈晓 发自香港）21日，“走进粤港澳大湾区”大型主题采访活动继续进行，记者走访了广深港高铁香港西九龙站、香港贸发局、香港科学园、香港招商局等。
在进入最后“冲刺”阶段的香港西九龙站内，香港铁路集团有限公司发言人透露，广深港高铁香港段将于9月下旬通车，目前站内28个人工窗口支持微信、支付宝购票，自助售票机则暂未开通此服务。
广州南至西九龙仅48分钟
香港西九龙站40万平方米的宽敞空间内，1500个各类标识已安装完毕。28个人工售票窗口正上方，一块大型电子显示屏正模拟滚动播放列车信息。此外，全站还设有约170个乘客资讯显示屏。
港铁公司发言人告诉记者，广深港高铁香港段将于9月下旬通车，具体时间暂未公布。目前，西九龙站人工窗口可支持微信、支付宝购票，自助售票机则暂未开通此服务。
“正式运行后，高峰期每天将有114对短途班次来往香港与福田、深圳北、虎门、广州南站。”港铁公司发言人说，其中84对会停靠福田及深圳北，30对停靠虎门及广州南站。启用初期，香港往深圳北、广州南站列车，大多数时候分别每15分钟、每30分钟就有一班。全线贯通后，广州南至西九龙行车时间将由现在的100分钟缩短至48分钟，深圳福田到西九龙只需14分钟。
此外，西九龙站每天还有13对列车可抵达北京、上海、昆明、桂林、贵阳、石家庄、郑州、武汉、长沙、杭州、南昌、福州、厦门和汕头14个城市。
西九龙站如何实现“一地两检”？记者了解到，从西九龙站出发前往内地的旅客在B1层售票大堂购票入闸后，前往B3离境层先后办理香港出境和内地入境手续，便可至B4层乘车离港。反之，旅客抵达西九龙站B4层后，需前往B2层办理内地出境和香港入境手续，方可验票出闸。
