ENTER THE MTR
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to various other underground railway systems resulted in the setting up of a comprehensive training scheme incorporating sophisticated simulators and a two-storey training school with 30 instructors, an apprentice workshop and drawing office, lecture rooms and classrooms. It is situated beneath the podium at the Kowloon Bay depot and cost $2 million to provide.
Security and crime prevention throughout the MTR system have led to the establishment of a new police division of 137 officers. The main control room for the division is adjacent to the central control room of the railway at the Kowloon Bay depot. Initially, reporting centres have been set up at Chater, Admiralty and Tsim Sha Tsui stations, and a fourth is being considered for Kowloon Tong station, where the interchange of the MTR and the Kowloon-Canton Railway will be located in the future. Full radio coverage of the railway is a further link in the security chain, enabling policemen to make good use of their highly effective 'beat radios'. All crimes or accidents within railway premises can be reported immediately to the central control room for relay to the district police station nearest the scene if further help, or investigation, is required.
Related Development
Besides being responsible for constructing the railway, the Mass Transit Railway Corpora- tion, in partnership with commercial organisations, is also heavily involved in property development in four locations adjoining the MIS. These are at the Kowloon Bay depot, Argyle and Admiralty stations, and at the old General Post Office site in Central District. At the Kowloon Bay depot, a residential and commercial complex named 'Telford Gardens' is being constructed on a 10-hectare slab of concrete supported on columns 15.8 metres high. This slab is the largest area of concrete at this height anywhere in the world. Beneath the podium is the railway depot, sidings and maintenance areas; above it will be about 5,000 flats for 25,000 people. Extensive community facilities and a large commercial area are also planned. The project is the largest of the corporation's property
ventures.
At the old GPO site, a single tower office block of 26 floors is being built. It houses the concourse to Chater station in its basement, with shops to be built on the ground and mezzanine floors, and alternative shopping or banking facilities on the second and third floors. The corporation has signed an agreement with a commercial concern to undertake this development, and also the one at Admiralty, where two office towers of 26 floors and 35 floors are being constructed on a podium above the station.
At Argyle in Kowloon, a 19-storey commercial, shopping and office block is to be constructed, while on the Tsuen Wan extension a similar development to the one at Kowloon Bay is envisaged. Located at the depot in Tsuen Wan, it will cover about eight hectares and provide about 4,000 flats for 20,000 people and an 8,000-square metre commercial complex. This development is scheduled for completion at the end of 1983. Other sites earmarked for possible development are at Kwai Fong and Kwai Hing.
Looking Ahead
As part of the overall mass transit system, consultants have recommended the building of two further lines. One of these is referred to as the Island Line (running from Chai Wan to Kennedy Town on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island); and the other as the East Kowloon Line (from Western District Market, under the harbour, to Tsim Sha Tsui; then through east Kowloon, past the airport, to Diamond Hill). This line would be suitably positioned for a further link with Sha Tin in the New Territories. However,