HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954
It is hoped that the two diesel electric locomotives which have been ordered from Australia will be in service by the summer of 1955. Of the 19 passenger coaches ordered in Britain in 1948, five had arrived here by the end of 1954 and it is expected that the remaining 14 will be delivered early in 1955. These will reduce overcrowding considerably.
Statistics for 1954 are as follows :
Lengths of lines
Main points of call
:
Total passengers carried :
Total freight carried (tons):
: Main Line-22 miles
Total length of lines-35 miles New Territories, Hong Kong
3,834,478
119,218
Passenger miles travelled : 45,768,740
Roads
Before the war, the roads were constructed mainly of waterbound macadam and of tarmacadam, either tarpainted or with a 1" bituminous wearing coat, but there are now about 114 miles of concrete roads in Hong Kong mostly with a bituminous wearing coat and designed to take the rapidly increasing weight and volume of traffic. The more lightly constructed roads are unable to stand up to this increasingly heavy load and in 1952 a five-year road reconstruction programme was initiated under which $4 million was set aside annually for reconstructing some of the principal traffic routes of the Colony. Nearly all roads reconstructed under this programme have been built of vibrated concrete. This reconstruction, together with the general resurfacing and maintenance of roads, has been carried out by contract with local firms although small main- tenance gangs are still employed for minor works.
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