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Communications and Transport
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A NEW $150 million railway terminus came into operation towards the end of 1975, underlining the importance of freight and passenger traffic with China and at the same time adding to Hong Kong's reputation as a communications and transport centre in Southeast Asia. Work also began on the underground mass transit railway, which will cost $5,000 million.
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The people of Hong Kong have a particularly wide choice of public transport- bus, tram, cable-car, train, taxi, minibus, ferry and hoverferry. Services are constantly being improved wherever possible, and this also applies on a larger scale to facilities for international shipping and air travel and transport. In the field of telecommunica- tions, the territory has long made use of satellite earth stations, computers, and highly complex electronic equipment.
Kowloon-Canton Railway
The new terminus for the Kowloon-Canton Railway began operating on Novem- ber 30, when the 8.26 am train left for the Lo Wu border with China. Apart from serving local transport needs, the railway is used extensively by passengers to and from China, who change trains at Lo Wu station. The railway is owned by the Hong Kong Government.
Four years of work and $150 million went into the new terminus, which is called Kowloon Station. It covers 32 acres in Hung Hom-about two miles from the old station which has stood on the waterfront at Tsim Sha Tsui for 60 years.
Kowloon Station has the capacity to cope with the departure of 30 trains an hour. Facilities include a restaurant, bar, book store, travel services, a mini-bank and escalators to each of the three platforms. Closed circuit television cameras con- tribute to the smooth-running of the station. The terminus includes a site for an indoor stadium capable of seating 15,000 people, which should be completed in about two years' time.
The freight terminal can accommodate nearly 400 wagons, and it is expected that more than 5,000 tons of goods will be off-loaded onto as many as 600 road vehicles a day. Goods will also be unloaded directly from the railway wagons across the seawall and into floating tankers or junks.
The railway handles a substantial proportion of all goods and livestock imported from the People's Republic of China to Hong Kong. Since August 1974 it has been operating trains bringing oil from that country with a potential of more than 2,000 tons a day. A new goods yard is being built at Fo Tan to help deal with this traffic.