Iris Tang, 26, a student who came to Hong Kong with three friends on Monday, said sleeper trains allowed them to make good use of their time while saving on the expense of one night’s accommodation.
“Time is money. Flight delays happen all the time which might hold up the schedule while sleeper trains often depart on time, providing us a cost-effective option to travel,” Tang said. “The sleeper train travel time is perfect for ‘military-style travel’.”
Arriving in Hong Kong at around 8am on Monday following a ride from Changsha, Tang said she planned to visit numerous tourist spots, including Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui within a day.
“I will go to Macau on Tuesday and continue my ‘military-style travel’,” Tang said.
Zhu Weihang, 18, who just received an offer to attend Polytechnic University, said sleeper trains suited those who made last-minute decisions to travel.
“I decided to come to Hong Kong two days ago. Sleeper trains became the ideal choice when compared with expensive airfare,” Zhu said.
She added that if she eventually decided to study in Hong Kong, sleeper trains would be her first priority to travel back home.
Yuan Hanchen, a 32-year-old programmer, said she suddenly needed to go on a business trip from Hangzhou to Shenzhen on Monday.
“Flight delays happen all the time, especially in Shenzhen. Sleeper trains, by comparison, help to secure my travel plans,” she said.
A second-class seat on trains from Beijing over the next two weekends costs 854 yuan (US$117), while an upper berth bed was between 940 yuan and 1,170 yuan, and lower berth ones were priced at 1,060 yuan to 1,330 yuan.
A second-class seat on the trains from Shanghai costs 622 yuan, and a sleeper costs 800 yuan to 1,470 yuan for the coming two weekends.
But there are more choices for flights. A Post’s check on Google Flight found a one-way ticket from Shanghai to Hong Kong on weekends could range from HK$800 to more than HK$2,000, depending on the departure time and airline company. The flight duration is typically less than three hours.
Flights from Beijing on weekends, which normally take less than four hours, range from HK$750 to more than HK$2,000.
Nevertheless, the tourism sector dismissed concerns over the potential impact of sleeper trains on hotel business.
Fanny Yeung Shuk-fan, executive director of the Travel Industry Council, said the launch of the sleeper train instead “grew the pie” of the industry.
“Apart from those flying into Hong Kong from Beijing and Shanghai, we got an extra batch of travellers who are arriving by sleeper trains,” she said. “Even if they could save a night of accommodation, they would still stay for a few days in Hong Kong as they have come such a long way.”
Yeung said many tourism agencies were organising sleeper train tours to the mainland, a mode of travel that was deemed family-friendly.
She added that she wished more destinations could be added to the service, especially cities that required more than three hours of flight time from Hong Kong.
Tourism Association executive director Timothy Chui Ting-pong also dismissed concerns about the impact on local consumption, saying: “It’s just the same as arriving in Hong Kong on a red-eye flight.”
Instead, he saw a huge potential in sleeper train tours. He organised a group tour which took the first sleeper train to Beijing on Saturday, with all 48 places snatched up within 10 minutes, and a few hundred on the waiting list.
“We received a lot of inquiries about sleeper train tours to Beijing and Shanghai during the summer holiday. We will speak to the railway operator to see how we can get as many tickets as possible,” he told a radio programme on Monday.
He said he wished the sleeper trains could run every other day, instead of only on weekends and offer more destinations including Xian, a tourism hotspot in the central region.