· 2 ·
Governor: We recognised, as I said the other day, the extreme inconvenience that people in Tuen Mun Who are travelling to Kowloon or Central to work have had to suffer in the last few days. I think it is fair to say that even without the problems that we've had as a result of the typhoon, traffic and transport have been one of the biggest difficulties and problems that the community in Tuen Mun faces. That's why I made a private visit to Tuen Mun earlier in the summer at the District Officer's invitation in order, for example to see for myself the case on the ground for extending the Western Corridor Railway Spur, not just to Tuen Mun North but to Tuen Mun Central which is something which the District Board have felt very strongly about over the last months and years. I think we should look at both the short term and the long term therefore when they are considering the traffic problem in the Northwest New Territories and in particular in Tuen Mun. I don't think that anybody reasonably believes that it would have been right for us to have risked lives, to have risked individual safety when we're advised by experts about the possibility of landslips and landslides along the Tuen Mun Road. It was unfortunate. It was extremely sad. But I think we were right to take the decisions that we did take on the advice of our engineers, on the advice of our consultants. I'm pleased that the situation has been alleviated by opening, partial opening up Kowloon bound carriageway today and the contractors tell us that they committed all the resources both in terms of personnel and in terms of equipment, all the resources that are required to deal with the question of the safety of slopes as rapidly as possible.
We are getting a daily report and we'll obviously have the situation back to normal as soon as we can. But the longer term problem is that normal isn't satisfactory. That's why we have to continue to improve ferry services which we've been increasing steadily by about 15 per cent, 10 per cent, something between those figures, over the last few years. It's also why we badly need to complete the country park section of Route 3. It's why we need further traffic management and road improvements like the addition of a uphill carriageway on the Tuen Mun Road and the widening of Castle Peak Road. I believe myself that it underlines the case for us getting on as rapidly as we can with the Western Corridor Railway and the spur to Tuen Mun. I want to make it absolutely clear that that is one of our transport priorities. We've been discussing it in the infrastructure co-ordinating committee with our Chinese colleagues and I am sure that completion of that project will be one of the priority tasks of the Chief Executive of the SAR Government. The sooner we can start the work the better. I just want to add that having gone and seen things for myself, I think we need to look very, very carefully at the arguments that residents have put forward for extending the spur from Tuen Mun North to Tuen Mun Central. We've therefore asked the KCR to look at that as a matter of urgency and we will be announcing the results of that as soon as
we can.