CONFIDENTIAL
BY BAG
HK & G к
8
CR 14/2321/50 III
D/DEI/73C/6-6-3 HK
HKK
173/2
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY MO. 51
8 AUG 1978
MISS D POPE
D I 73C
MOD
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
REGISTRY Action en
2 August 1978
ELECTRIFICATION OF CHINESE RAILWAY
Thank you for your letter of 11 July with the useful details of Chinese plans for railway electrification. In para 1. of the annex to your letter you suggested that even if the line from Canton to Shum Chun is not electrified this would not rule out through passenger trains between Hong Kong and Canton. In fact, the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KC R) see a number of practical problems about mixing electric and diesel systems:
2.
(a) the journey time between Kowloon to Lo Wu
diesel locomotive hauled will be some 13 mins longer than that taken by the electric multiple unit trains and there would be implications for the basic electric multiple timetable;
(b) the bulk of the K C R coaches are designed
to run at a maximum of 60 mph except for the Japanese coaches which have a maximum of 75 mph;
(c) the present trains north of the border run
at relatively high speed viz. 89 miles in 105 minutes giving an average speed of just under 51 mph and it is questionable whether the KCR coaches would be acceptable to the Chinese for relatively high speed running.
There would additionally be problems in immigration control. Unless this was done en route there might be little saving in time over the present
CONFIDEN HAL
-/2.
Page 90Page 91