The Light Rail Transit (LRT) in Hong Kong, Part Two

HF: BACKGROUND ON THE SYSTEM’S CONSTRUCTION

The northwest part of the New Territories of Hong Kong, which includes the new town of Tuen Mun, a developing market town, Yuen Long, and the Castle Peak Road corridor between the two towns, has been developing rapidly since the mid 1970s under the Hong Kong government’s new towns development program to cope with rapid population growth.

The idea of introducing an LRT system into the region dated back as far as 1972, when a commercial firm proposed building a circular tram route in Tuen Mun. This triggered a series of studies to determine the most appropriate transport system for the new town. A wide range of modes was initially screened, ranging from minibuses, buses, street trams, a light rail system, an automated guideway system, a conventional metro, and elevated monorail. Finally the government decided to provide an advanced light rail system to the new towns. Apart from such advantages as independence from fuel oil, better quality of service, and greater environmental compatibility, it was thought that a light rail system would help to promote the image of the new towns.

In November 1983 the government invited the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC), a public corporation running a passenger and freight heavy rail service, to build and operate the LRT, which by that time had developed conceptually from a Tuen Mun town system into a regional system for the whole northwestern New Territories, including a loop for another new town called Tin Shui Wai.

In July 1984 the KCRC accepted the offer to build the LRT system. KCRC was granted an exclusive right to provide the major public transport servces (i.e. LRT and its feeder bus services) in the designated transit service area.

In August 1985 the KCRC awarded a turnkey contract of HK$1.1 billion to an Australian consortium of Leighton Contractors Asia Ltd. and MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority of Victoria, Melbourne) to build and equip the first phase of the LRT project. Following an intense 3-year construction period, the 23-km Phase 1 system commenced commercial service on September 18, 1988 (see Figure 1), managed and operated by the light rail division, one of KCRC’s business divisions.

 

SYSTEM FEATURES

Network

The Phase 1 system is 23 km of double track and 41 stops. Three extensions to the system in Tuen Mun, totaling 5 km of track with 10 stops, opened for service between November 1991 and February 1992 (see Table 1).

The Phase 1 system is entirely at grade but the extensions feature three LRT bridges. Over 90 percent of the system runs on its own right-of-way, which in Tuen Mun was formed as part of the development of the new town. As a result construction work caused the minimum disturbance to the community.

The bulk of the system is fenced off to prevent pedestrian access other at specified crossing points (largely located adjacent to the stops) and at road junctions.