Travel this Lunar New Year is cheaper as the MTR reduce fares. On the 9 and 10 February adult Octopus holders will enjoy child concessionary fares and holders of other octopus card will pay just $1 per journey.
Other existing MTR discounts such as the Interchange Discount, the Fare Saver Discount and the 25% discount for connecting journeys with the Monthly Pass Extra etc will still function – unless the resulting fare is $0. There are no completely free trips.
The main exclusions for the discounted Lunar New Year travel are the Airport Express, MTR Feeder Bus, journeys to or from Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau stations and East Rail Line First Class Premium.
Quite how, during busy periods, the MTR will get 689 mainland tourists just off a Macau Ferry and their 689 pieces of heavy wheelie luggage onto a train inside a ‘normal stop’ is anybody’s guess… However as of 6am on the 28 December after passing through HKU, the MTR’s Island Line ends in Kennedy Town instead of Sheung Wan. The two new stations, located 80m and 60m underground respectively, are efficient and well connected to to bus stops and minibus terminuses.
There’s big shiny wall murals at each station – with HKU having an interested potted history of the the University on the long corridor to exits A1 & A2. It’s an interesting 50m plus panel with some nice photos, but people reading the mural block half the space creating an irritating logjam even during the afternoon.
The Good:
Public toilets: the MTR have finally recognised that it’s customers might need a toilet, and there are public facilities inside each station.
Wifi hotspots: at each entry concourse, the MTR’s free wifi hotspots allows 5x 15 minute logins per day – registration free.
New Ticket machines: which among other things allow for checking of your Octopus transaction history and, for $3, a transaction print out.
The Bad:
Exit A at HKU station. This lift only exit is split into two parts A1 and A2 – each is bank of four elevators using a new lift tower. A1 opens at the top to offer exits at HK University and A2 which opens at the bottom onto Pokfulam Road. The lifts are double sided, with the unsigned exit side opening before the entry side. This makes for very slow lift fills – in the middle of the afternoon there was a queue. It’ll be messy in rush hour and a nightmare when raining.
Click on the photos to see more internal and external images
The MTR’s Island line gets two new stops on the 28 December as the Kennedy Town and Hong Kong University stations open. A third stop in Sai Ying Pun has been delayed until early 2015. The first train will leave Kennedy Town for Chai Wan at 6:00am
Fares for the new stops have yet to be announced.
The details of the Sai Ying Pun discounts are as follows:
“Sai Ying Pun Station Pre-opening Special Discount Promotion”
Due to difficult ground conditions in Sai Ying Pun Station, the required number of entrances will not be completed in time to open the station in December. Instead, Sai Ying Pun Station is expected to open at the end of the first quarter in 2015. To encourage commuters living and working in the vicinity of Sai Ying Pun Station to use the new rail service from Sheung Wan Station or HKU Station, a special HK $2 “Sai Ying Pun Station Pre-opening Special Discount” will be offered to Adult Octopus users (HK$1 discount for concession Octopus) from 28 December until the opening of Sai Ying Pun Station. The discount can be obtained at self-service machine s located inside four 7-Eleven convenience stores in the Sai Ying Pun area as follows:
Shop E, Tai Hing Building, 125 Des Voeux Road West, Sai Ying Pun
Shop A, Kaiser Centre, 18 Centre Street, Sai Ying Pun
55 Bonham Road, Sai Ying Pun
240 Queen’s Road West, Sai Ying Pun
Exit any of the 29 MTR stations on the map above between 7:15 and 8:15am on a weekday and passengers using an adult octopus card get a 25% discount on your journey. The important word to note EXIT, you can start your journey anywhere! The discount is also works with the connected journeys discount and lasts from 1 September 2014 to 29 May 2015.
Does this mean fares are going to rise soon?
Terms and conditions are here http://www.mtr.com.hk/archive/ch/pdf/early_bird_terms.pdf
