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LCQ7: Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor's throughput
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    Following is a question by the Hon Miriam Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (October 31):

Question:

     It has been reported that there is a very big discrepancy between the actual throughput of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor and the projected figures, indicating that the corridor has failed to ease the traffic congestion at other control points effectively. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) how the average actual daily numbers of various types of vehicles using the above corridor compare to the relevant projected figures;

(b) whether it has investigated the reasons for the throughput of the corridor being on the low side; if it has, of the findings; and

(c) in addition to exempting goods vehicles of cross-boundary freight companies from the requirement for applying to the relevant authorities in Guangdong Province in advance for additional Shenzhen Bay Port crossing endorsement, and extending the arrangements for cross-boundary private cars to use that control point on a trial basis, whether the governments of Hong Kong and Guangdong will adopt other measures to encourage more goods vehicles, container trucks and other types of vehicles to use the above corridor, so as to ensure that the corridor can achieve its function of diverting traffic flows; if so, of the details of such measures?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The initial daily two-way vehicular flow at the Shenzhen Bay Port (SBP) was estimated to be around 29,800 trips. As cross-boundary drivers are getting more used to using the new control point, the daily two-way vehicular flow has increased from about 1,400 in July to 3,256 in September 2007, details as follows:

Vehicle type        Daily two-way vehicular flow
                    (September 2007)
------------        ----------------------------

Coach                       389 trips
Private car               1,701 trips
Goods vehicle             1,166 trips

Total                     3,256 trips

(b)   We have sought the views of the cross-boundary freight trade on the use of SBP.  Some trade members opined that the ancillary facilities around the Shenzhen port area were not yet fully developed, and the Hong Kong freight companies could not set up offices near the control point to provide support to cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers on customs declaration and clearance of goods. In addition, as the construction works of Guangshen Yanjiang Expressway linking the control point has yet to be completed, some goods vehicle drivers were concerned about the possible traffic congestion after entering the Shenzhen city by SBP.

(c) Apart from having reached agreement with the Guangdong government to exempt goods vehicles of cross-boundary freight companies from the requirement for applying for additional SBP crossing endorsement in advance from the relevant authorities in Guangdong Province and extending the arrangement for cross-boundary private cars to use the control point on a trial basis, we have also conveyed to the relevant Shenzhen authorities the trade's comments on ancillary facilities at the control point and the road network.  We hope that they would consider implementing traffic management measures as necessary to improve the traffic condition of the connecting road network and complete the construction of Yanjiang Expressway as soon as possible to increase the capacity of the road network. We will continue to work closely with the relevant Mainland authorities to further improve the clearance arrangements at SBP to attract more vehicles to use the control point.

Ends/Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 13:06

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