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The Executive Council has given green light to further planning of the Northern Link (NOL) and the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (ERL).
A government spokesman today (February 6) said that, upon the instruction of the Executive Council, the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) would be asked to proceed with further planning of the proposed NOL and Hong Kong section of the ERL as a combined project.
At present, cross-boundary travellers in the western part of the New Territories rely mainly on the use of road-based transport for commuting to and from the boundary. Also, there is a lack of rail link between the eastern and western parts of the New Territories.
䩕The NOL will provide a fast and convenient rail service to the boundary for residents in the western part of the New Territories. They can, in future, use the new NOL for travelling between the existing West Rail (WR) Kam Sheung Road Station and the Lok Ma Chau Station at the boundary. They can also use the new NOL station at Chau Tau of Yuen Long to change over to the Spur Line for travelling to and from stations along the East Rail. The NOL will tremendously reduce the journey time between the eastern and western parts of the New Territories,蒅 the spokesman said.
On cross boundary trains, the travelling time between Hong Kong and Guangzhou by the Kowloon-Guangdong Through Train at present is about 100 minutes. The proposed ERL will reduce the travelling time to an hour, which will be conducive to the integration and development of Hong Kong and Guangdong Province.
The 30km long Hong Kong section of the ERL will have its terminus at West Kowloon. It will share tracks with the Kowloon Southern Link now under construction, the section of the existing WR between Nam Cheong Station and Kam Sheung Road, and then the NOL before branching out from Chau Tau to a dedicated track, on viaduct and in tunnel, for connection with the Mainland section of the ERL at the boundary at Huanggang.
The Mainland section of the ERL will be connected to the new, high-speed national rail networks now being developed by phases on the Mainland, including the Beijing-Guangzhou Passenger Line and Hangzhou-Fuzhou-Shenzhen Passenger Line. It will also be connected to the Rapid Transit System being developed in the Pearl River Delta (PRD).
䩕The ERL will significantly improve connections between Hong Kong and the other major PRD cities, and also thereby help to reinforce Hong Kong﷿s status as the gateway to the PRD and Pan-PRD areas. It will make use of the spare capacity of the WR corridor, enhancing efficiency in resource allocation and effectiveness in rail capacity utilisation,蒅 the spokesman added.
The Government will begin negotiation with the KCRC on the scope, costs and implementation programme of the combined project.
Both the NOL and Hong Kong section of the ERL are among the possible projects short-listed for implementation in the Railway Development Strategy 2000.
Ends/Monday, February 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:16
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