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This August 2, 2017 photo shows bullet trains at the parking place in Hong Kong, south China. The Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link is expected to be completed in 2018. From Guangdong to Hong Kong and Macau, can people work in one city and sleep in another? With the help of infrastructure. Photo: Xinhua

The transport chief yesterday gave an optimistic financial outlook for the controversial HK$84.4 billion high-speed rail link to the mainland, saying it would turn a profit in 50 years, though he gave no figures to back this up.

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-- SCMP City, January 30

I know that a good number of people will wrinkle their noses at this talk of the profit potential of the new high speed rail link.

It is the wrong way of looking at things, they will say. This is not a capitalist venture. We did not build this railway to make a profit. We built it as a social service to provide people with rapid rail connections to Guangzhou and the mainland’s high speed rail system.

But if you must look at it in money terms, they will say, then time is money in business and shorter travel times will thus help business, which will be good for the economy of Hong Kong. It is therefore a worthwhile project.

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I don’t buy it.

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