High-speed Rail
Latest high-speed trains in Asia offer airline-like business class cabins
13 July 2011 | The advantages of high-speed rail have been well documented. Compared with flying, travelling by fast train offers city-center to city-center connections, no need for checked baggage, or repeated queuing for security and boarding. Also, trains are not prone to delays caused by bad weather, slow baggage handling, crowded runways and air traffic. Research has shown that business travellers are willing to travel to destinations by rail for up to 4 hours, while leisure travellers are even prepared to use trains for journeys of up to 6 hours.
In an effort to make rail travel even more attractive for business travellers, high-speed rail operators in China and Japan have recently introduced airline-like business class cabins on their latest fast trains.
Beijing – Shanghai ‘Harmony Express’
China is in the process of building the world’s largest high-speed network in record time, with rapid passenger lines already criss-crossing much of the country. The recently opened Beijing to Shanghai high-speed railway is the latest portion of a network the government hopes will stretch 45,000 km (27,960 miles) by the end of 2015. Construction of the 1,318 kilometre (819 mile) high-speed rail connection between Beijing and Shanghai began in April 2008 and track laying was completed only 2,5 years later in November 2010. The USD33 billion rail line has been operating on a trial basis since mid-May and was officially opened at the end of June 2011.
Onboard experience
Besides second and first class cars, the Beijing – Shanghai Harmony Express features a business class car with 24 lie-down seats with a nearly full recline. Each seat is equipped with a foldable LCD TV, a tray table, socket and reading lamp. Travellers are waited on by uniformed stewardesses and even the galley area and restroom have been upgraded.
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Hong Kong Airport opens new SkyPier ferry transfer terminal
19 January 2010 | Air-to-rail links have been gaining ground across Europe in the past decades. Airlines such as Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France, and KLM have agreements with train operators to provide ‘intermodal’ journeys, which combine a flight and train travel, often in one ticket. In this way, the train effectively works as a feeder service for the airline to feed passenger to its hub airport.
On a similar note, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has just opened the SkyPier, a new cross-boundary ferry terminal that provides high-speed ferry services for transit passengers to and from the Pearl River Delta, home to around 60 million people. The SkyPier ferry service is for transit passengers only. Currently, high-speed ferries make an average of 85 trips everyday, shuttling around 5,000 passengers between HKIA and eight ports in the Pearl River Delta and Macao, including Zhongshan, Zhuhai Jiuzhou, Dongguan Humen, Guangzhou Nansha, Shenzhen Shekou and Shenzhen Fuyong as well as Macao’s Taipa and Maritime Ferry Terminal. A temporary SkyPier opened in 2003 and served almost 10 million passengers. The new 16,500-sqm permanent SkyPier is eight times the size of the temporary facility, and designed with a maximum capacity for 8 million annual passengers.
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