166
COMMUNICATIONS
KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY
The British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway runs from the Tsim Sha Tsui station to Lo Wu on the Chinese frontier where it joins the Chinese railway system. Since 1949 passengers have had to change trains and walk from Lo Wu station to Sham Chun on the other side. Mail and goods traffic in wagon loads, however, travel through without transhipment.
There are 17 daily passenger trains each way operating on the British Section and an average of five goods trains per day. Passenger traffic is normally heavy at weekends and public holidays, especially in winter, and special trains are often run between the Kowloon terminus and the Sha Tin station. The running time between Tsim Sha Tsui and Lo Wu, including stops at seven intermediate stations, is about one hour.
The greatest number of passengers carried in a single day during the year was 100,013 on April 5, 1971-the Ching Ming Festival day -when Hong Kong residents paid their respects to their ancestors in the cemeteries at Wo Hop Shek and Sandy Ridge in the New Territories.
A new power signalling system has been installed between the University and Tai Po stations and international tenders are being invited to replace 28 old passenger carriages with more modern rolling stock. Construction of a new terminal railway station at Hung Hom has started. It will replace the existing terminus at Tsim Sha Tsui. Proposals to double track a section of the railway line, including the re-modelling of Mong Kok and Sha Tin stations, and to purchase an additional locomotive and 12 passenger carriages, are under consideration.
|| 1 }
ROADS
The planning and design of new roads as well as improvements to the existing road network continued in accordance with a programme of priorities which is reviewed annually. During the year $51.7 million was spent on major projects and $15.5 million on road improvements and maintenance.
There are 618.21 miles of roads in the Colony maintained by the Government, of which 204.10 miles are on Hong Kong Island, 182.06 in Kowloon, and 232.05 in the New Territories.
On Hong Kong Island, the construction of the Garden Road com- plex continued. Traffic flow between the central business district and mid-levels improved following completion of Cotton Tree Drive