TNAG-0322-FCO40-358-Construction-of-underground-railway-system-in-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 118

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CONFIDENTI AL

2,640

Mr Wilford

Sir L

Mþyson

PROBLEM

1.

HONG KONG UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

What can we do to help British firms to secure at least a reasonable share of the work involved in building the proposed Hong Kong underground railway ?

RECOMMENDATION

2. I recommend that we should write to other Departments on the lines of the attached draft. FED concur in the assessment of the political risk contained in the draft.

BACKGROUND

Reports

3. The proposal to build an underground railway in Hong Kong has been under consideration since 1965. Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith and Associates submitted their first report to the Director of Public Works in September 1967. A supplementary report was prepared in 1968 (we have not got a copy of this but that does not matter because the "Final Report" stands by itself). This Final Report was commissioned following a detailed examination by the Hong Kong Government of the two earlier reports. It is in five wolumes but Volume I in effect constitutes the full report; the other four volumes contain detailed technical infor- mation and drawings.

Freferred System

4. The Final Report recommends that the system most suitable for the estimated traffic in 1986 (the Design Year) is the "Preferred System" involving the construction of 47 stations and a total route length of 32.7 miles (estimated cost at mid-1970 prices HK $4391 million - £302.4 m -

£302.4 m - excluding engineering fees, supervision of construction, Government administration costs and possible future inflation).

5. This system would be divided into nine distinct stages. Construction could be stopped at the completion of any stage after the second and still leave a fully operational system. A shortened system of this kind would be operationally viable and would provide the optimum service over its reduced length for the largest possible number of people.

Initial System

6.

The "Initial System" would be obtained by completing the first four stages. It would have 20 stations and a route length of 12.6 miles (estimated cost at mid-1970 prices

CONFIDENTIAL