C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL #B 機密
XCC(78)8
Copy No Page 3
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of 80
of the Tsuen Wan By-pass across Tsuen Wan Bay had diverted the through traffic from the Western New Territories. With the present timing this will not have happened. The Director of Public Works has examined the traffic implications of constructing the railway, including Tsuen Wan (Central) and Tsuen Wan (West) Stations as originally planned, in the Castle Peak Road, and has concluded that the traffic congestion so caused would be totally unacceptable.
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This assessment has led to the examination of alternative routes and by far the most satisfactory is one that runs to the north of the Castle Peak Road. Up to and including Tsuen Wan (Central) Station, which is immediately south of the proposed new depot site, the alignment presents no special engineering problems. Beyond Tsuen Wan (Central), however, there is no satisfactory alignment which will not result in land resumption and clearance expenditure and disruption incommensurate with the revenue and transport advantages of extending the line to Tsuen Wan West. The only route which was considered feasible in the time scale would almost certainly have resulted in the need to close down and acquire four established factories. There might also have been difficulties with the Tang Clan regarding the passage of the railway in front of its large and important ancestral grave.
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It has, therefore, been concluded that the Tsuen Wan line should terminate at Tsuen Wan (Central) Station although, as indicated in paragraph 4 above, access lines for the depot will extend into areas beyond it as indicated in the plan at Annex B. This change will result in the loss to the railway of some passengers, but interchange facilities will be provided to keep this loss to a minimum and ensure an easy transfer between buses to and from the Western New Territories. It is not proposed to extend the line to Tsuen Wan West at a later stage because the additional expenditure could not then be justified, bearing in mind the clearance costs and the fact that Tsuen Wan (Central) Station will have been constructed to a larger size as a terminus and that interchange facilities will have been provided at this station.
Costs and Benefits
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It is difficult to make a precise evaluation of the relative costs and benefits of the original and proposed alignments. By not taking the line as far as Tsuen Wan West the Corporation expects to show a net saving in construction costs of about $70 million, but the present trend in construction costs leads the Corporation to believe that it would be unwise at this stage to reduce the present estimate of total construction costs which include an allowance of 7% p. a. for escalation, an overall
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