1950-1951 — Page 12

32. During the year, 3,328,595 passengers and 319,861 tons of goods were dealt with at this improvised station. Revenue collected amounted to $2,835,786, and on average, 30 trains a day were received and despatched.

33. With tight turn-rounds, train punctuality was essential since on a congested single line such as this, small delays naturally affected several other trains. For the first few months after the suspension of through traffic, punctuality was bad brought about by the uncertainty of arrival of Chinese Section trains at the frontier owing to Nationalist bombing and the necessity of collecting all up tickets at Sheung Shui owing to absence of fencing at Lowu. The completion of the fencing at the end of April, however, coincided with a resumption of normal daylight services on the Chinese Section, and a new timetable was brought into operation on June 1st. With the introduction of this timetable, train punctuality was greatly improved by the elimination of the long stop at Sheung Shui, a non-crossing station, and the speeding up of the service by the operation of express trains between Kowloon and the frontier for passengers destined for China. A surcharge of 20% was levied on passengers travelling on these trains and additional revenue accruing from this source amounted to $412,008.

34. Another new timetable was introduced on October 29th. This was drawn up based on traffic experience of the previous four months, as the position had gradually changed through alterations to train schedules and new regulations introduced on the Chinese Section. Passenger services to and from Canton had settled down so that trains left the frontier during the morning and arrived through the afternoon. Trains were operated to connect as far as possible with these services. The average number of trains per day in this timetable was 32 with additional trains at week-ends for picnickers etc.

35. Three hundred and eighty eight special trains were run during the year for various purposes, many of them being at week ends when traffic was heavy. On Sunday, December 3rd a festival at Shatin, 7 miles from Kowloon, which attracted large crowds necessitated the running of 44 trains. It is thought this is a record for any one day for the line. This number would probably have been exceeded but for an unfortunate engine derailment caused by misguided but enthusiastic efforts by train staff to speed up movements at this station. Ballast trains operating at night for the Engineering Department numbered two hundred and six.

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