At the same time, the report recommended that Hung Hom station should continue to play a central role in Hong Kong's mass transit.

In September 1999, the then mayor of Guangzhou, Lin Shusen, announced his “Suigang maglev rail project” at the "Fortune Global Forum" in Shanghai.

The decision to build a “Regional Express”, depended on the Lok Ma Chau Spur provided additional transport capacity which would soon be saturated.

Since 2001, the Hong Kong government began working on the “Regional Express” with mainland China, and discussing the feasibility of cooperation on “Suigang maglev rail project”.

[11] September 2001, when he was the Hong Kong SAR Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, visited Canton/Guangzhou, where he met with the Governor of Guangdong Province, Lu Ruihua, acting mayor of Guangzhou, Lin Shusen and Shenzhen Mayor Yu Youjun for talks about the “Regional Express line concept”.

Tsang in Beijing to attend the “Mainland and Hong Kong SAR major infrastructure coordination meeting”, and with the State Development Planning Commission and the relevant ministry officials, the talks were initially on Regional Express railway line connecting Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, focussing on the design and coordination of consensus between the parties.

With a formal agreement with the Hong Kong SAR Government, decided by the Ministry of Railways, led the establishment of an expert group to study the construction of the Regional Express high-speed rail line.

The planning Group conducted preliminary studies on the main railway necessity, function, alignment, location transit, rail technology and economic benefits.

[17] The first phase of the study topics included the functional and strategic importance of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link project, the relevant regional passenger transport demand analysis and forecasting, as well as railway lines and public transit locations.

Including the necessities of GZ-SZ-HK XRL construction, function and regional transportation needs, forecasting and route traffic in order to determine the strategic value of the railway.

The second phase of the study, included rail alignments, station locations and the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen line connections, the main technical standards, passenger flow forecasting, financial benefits.

In mainland China, the Ministry of Railways had to consider the feasibility of the PRD Intercity Rapid Rail network together with the Guangzhou–Shenzhen section of GZ–SZ–HK XRL.

Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation and the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation produced a consolidated joint report submitted to the Government, it was a preliminary assessment of their ideas, but also required further studies by the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau & KCRC of the Northern Link.

In March 2003, the Guangzhou Railway Group Corporation general manager, Wú Jùnguāng, at the National People's Congress, submitted a bill that called for the construction of a Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link Passenger Line as soon as possible.

According to the existing passenger growth rate, to 2005, the Guangzhou East to Shenzhen route would require 96-151 train pairs daily, which will greatly exceed the capacity of the line.

In April 2008, the HKSAR Government asked the MTR Corporation to carry out further planning and design of the Express Rail Link.

Subsequently, the HKSAR Government gazetted the Scheme for the Express Rail Link under the Railways Ordinance to collect public views.

On 16 January 2010, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved the funding application for the construction of the Express Rail Link.

The following is a list of operators using the line and their respective rolling stock : In Hong Kong, MTR announced their intention to purchase several high-speed EMUs.