Global Financial Market Review

The cap on tickets for the high-speed rail line will be scrapped from Monday, when all of Hong Kong's land crossings to the mainland reopen.

Authorities on Friday announced a further easing of pandemic restrictions on travellers, including an end to the daily limit on the number of people crossing and to Covid testing requirements in most cases.

Writing on his blog on Saturday, transport secretary Lam Sai-hung said the government, the MTR Corporation and their mainland counterparts had agreed to drop the ticket limit from next week, coinciding with the full resumption of quarantine-free travel.

Lam also said relevant departments are discussing when to resume long-haul journeys.

Since high-speed rail services resumed on January 15, authorities have increased the number of tickets available several times. Thirty-thousand tickets to and from the mainland can be sold each day currently.

The minister, meanwhile, encouraged people to consider crossing the border via the Heung Yuen Wai checkpoint, a new control point that opened during the Covid outbreak initially for cargo use.