The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today announced that approval has been obtained from the central government to resume the services of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) West Kowloon Control Point and the XRL Hong Kong Section starting January 15.

The announcement came after the Hong Kong SAR Government co-ordinated with the Guangdong and Shenzhen governments and the full co-operation of the China State Railway Group Co (CR), the China Railway Guangzhou Group Company Limited (GRC) and the MTR Corporation (MTRC) on the XRL service resumption.

At the initial stage of the rail link's resumption, services between Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and Futian as well as Shenzhenbei and Guangzhounan stations will be resumed, while services to/from Guangzhoudong will be newly introduced. The trains will call at Guangmingcheng, Humen, Qingsheng and the newly added Dongguannan and Dongguan stations.

The opening hours of the XRL West Kowloon Control Point will remain the same as before the service suspension, ie from 6.30am to 11.30pm.

There will be no booking requirement at this control point. Passengers who have purchased tickets can travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland through the control point with a valid ticket.

The anti-epidemic measures are similar to other control points, generally people entering the Mainland from Hong Kong or vice versa must possess a negative result of a COVID-19 nucleic acid test conducted within 48 hours.

The Hong Kong SAR Government has been working closely with Mainland authorities and railway operators to ensure that the stations, trains, supporting facilities and manpower arrangements are well prepared.

The MTRC, CR and GRC have arranged trial runs since January 8 so that train captains and staff from both Hong Kong and the Mainland can familiarise themselves with the relevant procedures and cross-boundary track conditions, and to test the system's operation.

The disciplined services also conducted a drill at the XRL West Kowloon Control Point this morning to ensure the smooth operation of the control point at the initial stage of the service resumption.