TRANSPORT
corporations, wholly owned by Government. The other two are owned by the private sector.
Mass Transit Railway
The Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC) operates a three-line metro system comprising 43 route-kilometres with 38 stations served by a fleet of 671 cars operating in eight car trains. The system was opened in stages between October 1979 and August 1989. Trains run at two-minute intervals in the morning peak period on the Tsuen Wan line, and every two and a quarter minutes on the Kwun Tong and Island lines. In the evening peak period, trains run every two and a quarter minutes on the Tsuen Wan line and every two and a half minutes on the other two lines. A four-minute headway prevails on all three lines during the daytime off-peak period.
Patronage increased slightly during the year, and by the year's end the railway was carrying 2.05 million passengers a day. In relation to the length of the system it is the second busiest underground railway in the world. Adult fares range from $3 to $8.5 per trip according to distance travelled.
A plan for the construction and financing the Airport Railway is in hand. This new railway, when built, will consist of two separate rail services: a dedicated express service linking Chek Lap Kok Airport to Central, with stations at the airport, Tsing Yi, West Kowloon and Central and a domestic service between Tung Chung and Central with stations at Tung Chung, Tsing Yi, Lai King, Tai Kok Tsui, West Kowloon and Central. The domestic service will interchange with the Tsuen Wan line of the existing MTR system at Lai King and the Island Line at Central, thus bringing relief to the MTR Nathan Road corridor.
Kowloon-Canton Railway
The Kowloon-Canton Railway was opened in 1910 and was double-tracked and electrified in the early 1980s. Formerly a government department, it was vested in the Kowloon- Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) in February 1982.
Although the 34-kilometre railway caters for freight trains to and from China, for four daily passenger through trains each way between Kowloon and Guangzhou and since January 8, 1993 two daily passenger through trains each way between Kowloon and Foshan, it principally provides a suburban service to the new towns of the north-eastern New Territories. This traffic has grown substantially throughout the period since the first electric trains were introduced in 1982, and by the end of 1992 the railway handled 561 600 passenger journeys daily. Peak period average headways range from five minutes at the northern end of the line to almost every three minutes between Fo Tan and Kowloon. Passenger traffic is carried in a fleet of 351 cars operated in train formations of 12 cars. There are 13 stations along the railway. A major programme to replace old escalators and install additional ones began in 1991 and continued throughout the year.
Freight is handled by about 12 trains each way daily, which hauled 2.8 million revenue tonnes of inbound freight and 1.2 million tonnes of outbound freight in 1992. There are five goods yards at Hung Hom, Ho Man Tin, Mong Kok, Sha Tin and Fo Tan, and a marshalling yard at Lo Wu. Freight trains are hauled by a fleet of 12 diesel locomotives. In addition, a Hung Hom-Daleng railway container shuffle service was commissioned on December 7, 1992.
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