Tramways -1904 proposal for Kowloon trams extending to China

HF: In January 1904 Alfred Dickinson and Company, the consulting engineers for Hong Kong Tramways Ltd wrote to the under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office. The letter states that the company had discussed with Sir Paul Chater the possibility of constructing a tramway system on the Kowloon Peninsula and of extending this as far as Shum Chun in China. However the reply was not encouraging. No surveys were undertaken and the company dropped the idea.

(Sham Chun is the river that serves as a natural border between Hong Kong and China. Shenzhen lies on the northern bank of the river.)

Construction of the Kowloon Canton Railway began in 1906 and was clearly a better solution to linking Kowloon to China than a tramway. However, I wonder how long it would have taken to travel from TST to China by tram. Or even from Shau Kei Wan if the proposed cross harbour tram bridge, linked below, had been constructed!

Thanks to IDJ for this extract from Chapter 4 of the book Tramlines: The story of the Hong Kong Tramway System, Martin Barnett, Pub. by SCMP, 1984

The home page image is of Alfred Dickinson, courtesy of www.tramway.co.uk/ The company was based in Birmingham, UK.

 

This article was first posted on 26th September 2014.

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