GENERAL SURVEY
THE financial year 1963-64 has once again been one of many new records. The record figures are shown as follows:
(a) Gross railway revenue $11,520,166 was $1,090,256 more than
the record of $10,429,910 in 1962–63.
(b) Number of passengers 8,243,506 was 1,019,135 more than the
record of 7,224,371 in 1962-63.
(c) Goods tonnage 477,302 was 78,195 more than the record of 399,107
in 1962-63.
(d) Goods revenue $4,421,003 was $422,912 more than the record
of $3,998,091 in 1962-63.
(e) Number of live pigs by rail from China 826,147 was 390,426 more
than the record of 435,721 in 1962-63.
(ƒ) Number of passengers carried for any one day reached a new record of 89,489 (on 5th April, 1963, Ching Ming Festival Day). This was 3,929 more than on the same day in 1959-60 and 3,263 more than the previous record of 86,226 on 27th January, 1963, the third day of the lunar year which was the peak for railway travel during the Chinese New Year period.
2. There has been a continuous upward trend in both the passenger and goods traffic. The number of passengers has gone up to more than 2 times while the goods tonnage to nearly 33 times during the past 10 years (see Appendices XVII and XVIII).
3. Local passenger traffic continued to show an upward trend. The total number of local passengers carried during the fiscal year was 7,595,145, an increase of 16.83% over the previous year. This increase was mainly due to the rapid increase in population in the New Territories. The movement of passengers to and from China fluctuates unpredictably and the number of these passengers carried was 648,361, a drop of 10.36% below the previous year.
4. In the case of goods traffic, over 95% of them was imported goods from China. The imported tonnage was 468,222, an increase of 22.89% over the previous year. The export tonnage was only 1,207, a drop of 87.91%.
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