GENERAL SURVEY
THE financial year 1966-67 closed with extremely good financial results with a nett profit of $3,618,173 despite the exceptionally heavy rainfall and floods in June 1966 and the Cultural Revolution in China during the year. The following new records were established:
(a) Gross railway revenue $16,266,163 was $999,372 more than the
record of $15,266,791 in 1965–66.
(b) Goods revenue $8,149,529 was $1,111,177 more than the record
of $7,038,352 in 1965-66.
(c) Goods tonnage 1,044,151 was 149,085 more than the record of
895,066 in 1965–66.
(d) Number of live pigs by rail from China 1,031,858 was 18,358 more
than the record of 1,013,500 in 1965–66.
2. The goods traffic continued to show an upward trend (see Appen- dix XVII). Over 99% of it was imported goods from China. The imported tonnage was 1,039,941, an increase of 16.77% over the previous year. The export tonnage was only 2,617 an increase of 76.11%.
3. The continuity of the upward trend for total passenger traffic was for the first time slightly broken by the drop of 25.44% in the number of passengers to and from China as a result of the Cultural Revolution. (See Appendix XV). The total number of passengers carried this year was 9,473,899 as against 9,513,395 in the previous year, a drop of only 0.42%. The movement of passengers to and from China fluctuates un- predictably and the number carried was only 679,326 this year (see Appendix XIV). However, the local passenger traffic still continued to show an upward trend (see Appendix XVI). The total number of local passengers carried during the year was 8,744,254, an increase of 2.44%.
4. A new passenger train timetable was introduced on 1st January, 1967 to improve the train punctuality on this single line railway, which had been badly affected by the need to run a larger number of special trains to cope with the sharp increase in goods traffic and the steady increase in local passenger traffic during recent years. The time of the last train leaving Kowloon Station has been extended to 10.30 p.m. on weekdays and 11.00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays. This new timetable has proved very practical and satisfactory.
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