(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-30 22:18

HONG KONG -- More than 300 passengers aboard a through train from Beijing to Hong Kong arrived at Hung Hom Station here Wednesday afternoon after a prolonged trip due to winter storms that left the train stranded for almost two days.

The delay of the express train No. T 97 for about 47 hours was one of the chaotic disruptions of rail and air traffic in China by heavy snow storms that had battered most provinces in the country' s central, eastern and southern regions.

It normally took about 25 hours for the express train, which left China's capital Beijing at 12 o'clock on Sunday noon, to finish the 2,000-kilometer trip at Hung Hom Railway Station, Hong Kong. But this time it took 72 hours.

"I am all right," Zhang Hao, a 19-year-old student, said on leaving the train at Hung Hom Railway Station, "the long trip was totally unexpected."

"Fortunately we have radiators on the train and the steward offered us instant noodles," Zhang said, "some of the passengers even took the rare chance to make friends."

Other passengers, however, complained that the food provided on the train was of rather modest serve.

The MTR Corporation, Hong Kong's operator for the through train, distributed drinking water and posted notices at the Hung Hom Railway Station. A couple of hotlines had also been set up by the corporation to inform affected travelers with delays on the train schedules.

Trains that had been due to leave Hong Kong on return trips to Beijing were also delayed for the coming days, the MTR Corporation said, adding that about half of the passengers had canceled their trip by the train.

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