Passenger numbers at the Hong Kong checkpoint of the newly- opened 55-kilometer sea bridge across the Pearl River estuary reached an all-time high on Saturday, as authorities scrambled to prevent the chaos of the previous weekend.
Some 78,300 passengers had crossed the Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macau Bridge’s (HKZMB) Hong Kong checkpoint as of 8 p.m. on Saturday, reported South China Morning Post, citing the city’s Immigration Department.
This figure narrowly beat the 78,000 passengers recorded on October 28, the Sunday of the first weekend after the bridge’s inauguration on October 23. Last Saturday, around 59,000 people crossed the Hong Kong checkpoint.
However, even as passenger numbers continued to rise, congestion on parts of the bridge network remained a challenge.
The SCMP reports that hundreds of travellers were waiting in long queues at the mainland checkpoint of the bridge, but most were seated on a bus bound for Hong Kong in about 20 minutes. Many of the travelers belonged to mainland tour groups.
In Hong Kong, passenger flow throughout the terminal remained orderly and not overly congested, reported the SCMP. There were no reports of long queues on the Macau side, where more visitors are expected to favor the Border Gate crossing.
Last weekend’s congestion marked a strong improvement over the previous weekend, when thousands of passengers were stranded for hours waiting to get on the bridge. The travel chaos led some to express concerns about coach operators’ ability to cope with passenger demand.
The bridge’s opening ceremony was presided over by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who traveled to Zhuhai for the occasion. The ceremony had been announced suddenly last month, with little information provided to coach operators beforehand.
At the time, a representative of coach operator One Bus Hong Kong Macau, which runs land- based shuttle services between the two special administrative regions, stated: “This is a mega project. […] At such short notice and without any details, how can we make the necessary [logistical] arrangements? It will cause chaos and great inconvenience to the passengers.”
However, the 24-hour shuttle bus service – nicknamed the “golden bus” for the color of its vehicles – is adapting. The operator has increased the number of buses in its fleet from 120 to 138 and now rents another 20 to 30 vehicles from other companies during weekends, the SCMP reported.
new crossings record set on hkzmb
AS OF 5 p.m. on Sunday, more than 60,000 people had crossed the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Zhuhai port, 90 percent more than the previous Sunday. The majority of the port’s users are visitors coming in tour groups. One tour group from Jiangmen complained of poor management and insufficient capacity, having been made to line up for more than two hours before waiting to cross from Zhuhai and take the bus to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong port also recorded the highest number of crossings on Sunday, with more than 90,000 crossings registered.
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