TNAG-0841-FCO40-1050-Visit-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-Chi-1979 — Page 190

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CONFIDENTIAL

BRIEF FOR THE GOVERNOR'S VISIT TO CHINA

Rail and Road Communications

Rail Communications

Query

Freight Traffic

What plans are there for the build up of Chinese freight traffic? What spare capacity do we expect to have? Are there likely to be any problems in reconciling Chinese requirements with our capacity?

Answers

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Annex A

The tonnage of freight traffic from China has

Annex A shows the

approximately doubled this decade. number of loaded wagons and the tonnage from China received Since the decline in 1976, there each year since 1970-71.

has been a steady and significant increase, especially in the current financial year. In 1978-79, the rise in tonnage is 33% over the previous year and it looks as though the KCR will, for the first time in its history, exceed an annual figure of two million tons of goods traffic. does this include more than 1.9 million head of livestock.

Build up of freight traffic

2.

Nor

The only information the General Manager, Railway, has been able to obtain from any source is that there will continue to be an increase in the level of freight traffic, He has been quite unable to establish the likely amount on a year-by-year basis. One official of the China Travel Service (CTS) has talked of a doubling over the next three years, but this was on an informal basis.

CONFIDENTIAL

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