1973-1974 — Page 10

The remainder of the goods included chestnuts, fish, preserved meat and fresh milk.

30. The volume of mail and mail packets conveyed by rail to China for the Post Office increased from 7,676 to 8,067 tons.

31.

year.

Details relating to goods traffic appear in Appendix VI.

32. Operation. Train punctuality for the year under review was not satis- factory even though there was a slight improvement compared with the previous This was due to the imposition of speed restrictions on trains for the construction of underground drainage at Railway Mile 14, repairs to Railway Bridge No. 7 and the slewing of track inside Tunnel No. 1A for the construction of a railway spur. The total number of trains run was 17,743 an increase of 102 over the year 1972/73. The restrictions imposed by a single line railway significantly added to the difficulty in attaining a good punctuality record.

Trains on time

....

Trains delayed for less than 5 minutes Trains delayed for 5 minutes and longer

Total No. of passenger trains run :

No. of scheduled passenger trains

Percentage

4,110

33.22

3,155

25.50

5,107

41.28

12,372

100.00

SIE DIE SIE DIE H ER EN

33. The number and types of special trains run during the year under review were as follows :-

Up

Down

Total

Goods (loaded)

Goods (empty)

1,938

1,938

1,702

1,702

Passenger

450

442

892

Passenger (empty)

340

363

703

Military

5

5

10

Ballast trains

63

63

126

2,560

2,811

5,371

34. From 25th July, 1973 to 31st July, 1973, a meeting was held in Sham Chun, border town of China, with the Chinese Section authorities about the arrangements for goods traffic. The result was to make provision for an increase of three freight trains a day each way which would increase the maximum mumber of wagons from 160 to 240 on a peak day.

35. Exceptionally heavy rains caused the cancellatic. of Up Train No. 34 on 16th July, 1973 and the suspension of the trains service between Tsim Sha Tsui and Sha Tin on 21st August, 1973.

36. On 16th December, 1973, a new time-table for passenger trains on Sundays and public holidays was introduced. The time-table for passenger trains operating on weekdays remained unchanged. Features of the new time-

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