TNAG-1729-FCO40-2442-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 243

It is

question of trying to cook up the books and hide the

congestion element and try to sell it to the public and

deceive them. This is not its stand.

perfectly honest and open in this matter and this is

precisely why it wants to go open on this matter.

15

MR. CHEONG: Sir, I would be obliged if the Secretary can

enlighten me, who may not be a good mathematician.

He

said that the designed capacity is 75,000 and

that the current loading is 81,000 to 82,000,

saying in the same breath that there is an overloading

of 40 per cent. But if you consider the designed capacity

as 75,000 andjmimus 82,000, I cannot for the life of me

then

work it out

to be 40 per cent.

Secondly,

Sir, ne said while train safety was not in any

way at risk, overcrowding has reached such an intolerable

stage that passenger safety could be compromised. I commend

the

thinking about this but has it also

MTRC

for

considered that by diverting traffic to other modes of

transport it would probably add tremendously to the burden

of

the current road system and other modes of transport

at peak hours

this might

and

have

an

adverse impact on the overall productivity of Hong Kong?

SECRETARY FOR TRANSPORT:

Sir, I can clarify the first

point first. The 40 per cent increase refers to the