ENG-1973 — Page 209

COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT

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becomes less efficient, the incentive to own a private car increases and so congestion becomes worse. It is clear that in the years ahead it will be necessary to place restraints on vehicle ownership and use in order to ensure that the best use is made of the road system. Particularly during peak hours, it will be necessary to ensure that public transport gets priority in the use of roads. This must be coupled with measures to ensure that improvements to public transport go hand-in-hand with any restrictions on the use of private transport.

Mass Transit Railway

In February, it was announced in the Legislative Council that the government had decided to proceed with the construction of the first four stages of the mass transit railway, and to establish a corporation to be responsible for financing, con- structing and operating the system. A steering group, set up in 1972, continued its examination of the various methods of financing and constructing the railway and held a series of meetings with the four consortia interested in the project.

In August 1973, the government decided that the complete construction and equipment of the first four stages of the railway should be awarded as a single contract.

Starting at the beginning of October, performance specifications, outline designs and other information was progressively issued to the consortia. In December, after receiving further proposals from the consortia, it was announced that the government had decided to enter into negotiations with a Japanese consortium to ascertain whether it would be possible to conclude a contract with them.

While the negotiations went ahead, the consulting engineers, who had been appointed to design the railway, continued with their design work under the control of a small PWD unit set up for the purpose. By the end of the year, the precise location of most stations and railway lines had been fixed, while the outline design of most of the 22 stations included in the first four stages of the system was completed. Technical specifications for the trains, signalling and control equipment, power supply and telecommunication equipment were also completed. Research and design continued on the air-conditioning of both trains and stations.

A series of committees was set up to co-ordinate the requirements of the mass transit railway with those of other government departments and the general public. The committees studied the integration of the railway with the transport system as a whole, the effect on public utilities of building the railway, the re-routing of traffic necessary to minimise the effects of the construction on the travelling public, the safety and security requirements of the system and the acquisition of land and property.

Work continued on the examination of public and private development proposals to ensure that they did not conflict with the requirements of the railway, and that, where necessary, station entrances and ventilation shafts could be accommodated within the buildings concerned.

Two contracts were let-one to establish the soil conditions along the alignment of the railway and the other for the construction of four trial tunnels to assess the