Hong Kong should be able to extend the opening hours of more control points with mainland China for the coming Lunar New Year holiday to prevent a repeat of a post-New Year’s Eve stranding of thousands of visitors, according to the city’s sole delegate to the nation’s top legislative body.
Transport authorities on Tuesday also said they would consider introducing designated lanes for cross-border buses near checkpoints after operators lamented that traffic congestion had hindered their efforts to clear the crowds.
Thousands of mainland tourists were left stranded at a train station or delayed at the border in the early hours of Monday as they returned home from New Year’s Eve celebrations that drew 223,000 tourists to the city.
“When there are large-scale activities, it is obvious that the clearance capacity of the control points is insufficient,” Starry Lee Wai-king, a member of…