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Communications and Transport
DENSE urban development, an increasing population and the corresponding growth in the number of vehicles registered continued to place heavy demands on Hong Kong's transport system in the year 1980. To cope with the steadily intensifying pressures, the territory's integrated public transport network of buses, ferries, minibuses, trams and railways needs to be continually improved through modernisation and greater efficiency. The government's White Paper on Internal Transport Policy, 1979, which defined ways to meet transport challenges up to the 1990s, indicated that the development of a complete multi-modal transport system rested on three major principles: improvement of the road system; the expansion and improvement of public transport; and the more economical use of roads. It is essential that transport planning proceeds speedily and efficiently to keep pace with rapid development, both in the urban areas and in the New Territories. Accordingly, while new roads, flyovers and tunnels are being constructed, research and planning is continuing to devise more imaginative and practical schemes to meet the territory's traffic needs. -Although the government-imposed financial restraints on the road development programme eased during the year, implementation of some of the road projects was impeded because of lack of capacity in the construction industry. This, in turn, led to more emphasis being placed on the upgrading of public transport, and the better use of roads. The most significant improvement in public transport in 1980 was the opening of the full Modified Initial System of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) in February, 1980. Serving 15 stations on Hong Kong Island and urban Kowloon, the underground railway carried 155 million passengers in its first 10 months of full operation. It is anticipated that one million passengers a day will be using this system before the mid-1980s. At year's end, work on the 10.5-kilometre Tsuen Wan extension of the MTR was proceeding on schedule to an opening in 1982.
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Studies on the most appropriate public transport system to serve the crowded north shore of Hong Kong Island resulted in the government deciding, in December, to build an Island Line of the Mass Transit Railway in preference to a light rail transit line. However, a light rail system was being considered for the new towns of Tuen Mun and Yuen Long in the western New Territories.
Work on the modernisation of the Kowloon-Canton Railway continued during 1980, with the breakthrough in the new Beacon Hill Tunnel taking place in April. The first stage of electrification is expected to be commissioned by early 1982, providing a high-speed suburban service between the new town of Sha Tin in the New Territories, and Kowloon. Full electrification of the line to Lo Wu is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1982. In February, a second 'through' passenger train service was introduced between Kowloon and Guangzhou (Canton). The through coach express services have proved extremely popular, and were fully booked both ways during the year.