HONG KONG -- An express railway between Hong Kong and mainland China has drastically cut travel times, but not as many commuters and tourists as expected have been taking the train all the way to or from this special administrative region.
The Hong Kong government anticipated 80,000 daily entries to and departures from the region after the section between Hong Kong and Shenzhen opened on Sept. 23. The tally for that day, however, came to 75,500. The figure dropped to 46,500 the next day and to 37,800 the day after that.