The 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, a quarter of a century later, the transportation infrastructure network in Hong Kong has become more complete.
Following the government's announcement in 1998 of a transport policy with railways as the backbone, the railway network has become more developed, with a total length of 109.2 km in 1997, a 1.5-fold increase to the current 271 km, and the number of heavy rail stations has almost doubled.
In the early days of the reunification, franchised buses were still the most popular public transport service used by passengers in Hong Kong. However, time has changed. In recent years, railways have become the most important means of transportation for citizens, accounting for 40% of the public transport services.
However, the government's development strategy with railways as the backbone has been questioned from time to time in favor of railways.
The annual fare adjustment of the MTR is easier to arouse the public's reaction. The fare increase and decrease mechanism has also increased or decreased in the past few years, and the cumulative increase is about 25%.
"Hong Kong 01" looks back at the development of Hong Kong in the past 25 years through the local railway.
▼On June 21, the Admiralty Government Headquarters is full of decorations to celebrate the handover▼
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In 1997, when the two railways had not yet merged, they were divided into the MTR Corporation and the Kowloon-Canton Railway.
The subway has only three urban lines, the Tsuen Wan Line, the Kwun Tong Line and the Hong Kong Island Line, with a total length of 43.2 kilometers and a total of 38 stations. The Airport Express Line and the Tung Chung Line are under construction.
As for the Kowloon Railway, it operated the East Rail with a total length of 34 kilometers and set up 13 stations. At that time, it was planning to build the West Rail and another 32 kilometers of Light Rail.
In other words, the total length of the MTR was 109.2 kilometers, with a total of 51 heavy rail stations and 57 light rail stations.
Rail surpasses bus as largest public transport service
Times have changed and the world has changed. In mid-May this year, East Rail, which has a history of more than 100 years, realized its dream of crossing the sea and became the third cross-sea railway; 25 years ago, there was only one cross-sea railway line on the MTR Tsuen Wan Line.
In addition, the total length of the railways in Hong Kong has now reached about 271 kilometers, an increase of about 1.5 times compared with a quarter of a century ago. There are also 99 heavy railway stations, which has almost doubled in number;
The railway network in Hong Kong continues to develop. The South Island Line was opened to traffic at the end of 2016, allowing the railway to cover 18 districts in Hong Kong. In September 2018, the Hong Kong section of the high-speed rail was opened, connecting the mainland high-speed rail network.
Under the railway as the backbone of the transportation policy, the merged MTR has also successfully grabbed passengers, and the number of passengers continued to increase.
In 1997, railway passenger traffic (excluding trams) accounted for about 31.6% of total public transport passenger traffic, still lagging behind the 36.4% of franchised bus traffic; however, according to the figures of the Transport Department in April this year, the ratio of railway passenger traffic has risen to About 40.1%, an increase of about 9 percentage points compared with 25 years ago.
As for the market share of franchised buses, it fell to 31.3%.
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The MTR has frozen fares for 13 years, and the cumulative increase in fares has increased by more than 25%
The market share of rail services is increasing, but at the same time, fares continue to rise.
In September 1997, after the two railways increased their fares by an average of 5.5%, there was no fare increase for about 13 years. Until 2010, under the "additional or deductible" mechanism of MTR fares, the fare was finally increased again by 2.05%.
Since then, except for individual annual frozen prices and the “first-ever” price cuts in 2021, prices have been increased almost every year.
In 1997, from Admiralty to Tsuen Wan, the adult fare was only 11.7 yuan, and the current adult Octopus fare is 14.9 yuan, an increase of 27.4%; Central to Mong Kok was 9.9 yuan in that year, and now it is 12.5 yuan, an increase of 26.3 %.
Railway project overruns and delays become 'endemic disease'
Over the past 25 years, the railway network has continued to expand. However, at the same time as the development, Hong Kong's railway infrastructure projects seem to be suffering from "endemic diseases" of overruns and delays. For example, the West Island Line was originally scheduled to open to traffic at the end of 2014, but the Central Sai Ying Pun Station was postponed to 2015. It was put into use, and the cost exceeded 3.1 billion yuan; the Kwun Tong Extension was originally scheduled to open to traffic in August 2015, but was finally postponed to October 2016, and the cost exceeded 1.9 billion yuan.
▼A list of the scandals of the Sand-Central Line project▼
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Both the above-mentioned projects are financed and constructed under the ownership model, while the two major railway projects constructed under the service ownership model, the SCL and the Hong Kong Section of the XRL, face a greater problem of overruns and delays.
The high-speed rail was originally scheduled to be completed in 2015, but it was delayed until September 2018, and the cost doubled to 88.4 billion yuan from the initial estimate of 39.5 billion yuan.
As for the Sha-Central Line project, it was first seen in the "Railway Development Strategy 2000". It has spanned 20 years from planning to construction. In 2018, the Hung Hom Station expansion project was exposed to the scandal of short steel bars during the tow construction. To Kwa Wan Station, Convention and Exhibition There were also construction problems at the station, and after the replacement of the signal system of the East Rail, there was also the problem of "taking the wrong way".
Regardless of the opening time of the entire Tuen Ma Line and the opening time of the East Rail Transit section, it has been postponed several times.
Looking ahead, the Government and MTR continue to plan various new railway projects, such as the Northern Link, Tung Chung Line Extension, Tuen Mun South Extension, etc. It is believed that the railway network will become more developed.
The Hong Kong government plans to set up a new department, the Railway Administration, to supervise MTR and railway projects. It remains to be seen whether the "endemic disease" of railway infrastructure can be "cured".
▼On June 21, Tsim Sha Tsui was filled with flags and banners celebrating the return of the Chinese Communist Party▼
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