Hong Kong Looks to Rail to Alleviate Road Traffic

Road traffic in Hong Kong is heavy to the point of saturation within this small territory (roughly 1,000 square kilometers), with its highly concentrated urban center (Kowloon, the continental part, and the island of Hong Kong). This despite the fact that 80% of the trips in Hong Kong (7 million inhabitants) take place on public transport. This article describes how trains and metro are working to alleviate the road traffic problem. The author reports on two projects, the extension of the Island metro line and the South-Kowloon Railway (an underground, inter-city rail line), including the economic considerations, construction plans, and expected ridership. These projects would provide better links between the peripheral areas that were until now relatively isolated from each other. The author briefly comments on a governmental project that would unite two rail operators, Mass Transit Railways Corporation (MTR) which daily transports 2.4 million passengers, and Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation (KCR), which daily transports about 1.5 million passengers.