ENG-1965 — Page 232

COMMUNICATIONS

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KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY

The British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway runs from the southern end of the Kowloon peninsula to the Chinese frontier at Lo Wu, where it joins the Chinese railway system. Since 1949 passengers have had to change trains at the border between the Colony and China and walk the 300 yards separating the two termini. Mail and goods traffic in wagon loads travel through without transhipment, however.

There are 17 daily passenger trains each way on the British Section and an average of five goods trains each day. Passenger traffic is normally heavy at weekends and public holidays, especially in winter. Special trains are often run between the Kowloon terminus and Sha Tin, which is a popular picnic resort. The running time, including stops, between the terminal station in Kowloon and the border station at Lo Wu is about one hour. The number of passenger journeys now exceeds eight million a year and the greatest number of passengers carried in a single day during the year was 85,310. This was on 5th April (the Ching Ming Festival) when many passen- gers went to visit their ancestors' graves in Wo Hop Shek Cemetery at Fanling and at Sandy Ridge, Lo Wu.

Fares for third class travel are slightly higher than bus fares except between Kowloon and Sha Tin. Third class from Kowloon to Sha Tin, a distance of 7.14 miles, is 50 cents; children under 12 pay half fare. The second class fare is 50 per cent more than the third, and first class is double. Quarterly and monthly tickets at cheap rates are available for all stations.

Rolling stock in the British Section consists of eight diesel-electric locomotives, one rail-bus, 70 passenger coaches and 198 goods wagons. A new terminal station at Hung Hom is being planned. Workshops for both heavy and light repairs are to be built in the New Territories on land now being reclaimed from the sea.

ROADS

There are over 565 miles of road in the Colony maintained by the government. Of this total, some 197 miles are on Hong Kong Island, 160 miles in Kowloon and New Kowloon, and 208 miles in the New Territories. Traffic congestion has not yet reached the level ex- perienced in most major Western cities, but the growth in vehicle