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The Government today (April 20) launched the Stage 1 Public Engagement exercise for the Review and Update of the Railway Development Strategy 2000. In addition to publishing the Our Future Railway consultation document, it will conduct activities in various districts including roving exhibitions and public forums in the coming three months to collect public opinion on long-term railway development.
A Government spokesman said, "A railway project often takes more than 10 years or even longer to take shape from idea formulation to the conceptual stage, through detailed design to actual construction and commissioning. Moreover, railway projects have a profound impact on society, people's livelihood and economic development, thus requiring prudent and comprehensive planning. Therefore, railway development strategy must be reviewed well in advance to ensure that the public can participate in discussion and provide comments at an early stage."
The spokesman said the Government formulated the first Railway Development Strategy in 1994 to provide a framework for planning the future expansion of Hong Kong's railway network. It then announced the Railway Development Strategy 2000 in May 2000 to map out the railway network expansion plan up to 2016, as well as to reinforce the policy of using railways as the backbone of our passenger transport system. Since then, the railway network in Hong Kong has expanded rapidly. The total length of railways has increased from 148km to 218km and average daily patronage exceeds 4.5 million.
Currently, the Government is taking forward five railway projects at full steam, namely the West Island Line, the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the South Island Line (East), the Kwun Tong Line Extension and the Shatin to Central Link. On completion of all five railway projects between 2014 and 2020, the total length of railways in Hong Kong will increase to more than 270km (see Annex), and the rail share of local public transport is anticipated to increase to 43 per cent.
The spokesman said, "The five railway projects will be completed between 2014 and 2020. By 2020, the railway network will largely be able to satisfy the transport demand in the medium and long term. Yet, we believe we should be forward looking again and start reviewing the railway development strategy well in advance, so as to plan a more long-term railway development blueprint and reserve land for railway corridors and ancillary facilities."
The Government has commissioned consultants to conduct a study for the Review and Update of the Railway Development Strategy 2000 in two stages. Stage 1 includes assessing the ideas of major regional railway corridors serving the New Territories to satisfy transport demand for future key development areas and infrastructures, as well as conducting public consultation. In Stage 2, the consultants will optimise and modify the relevant ideas and schemes in view of the public opinions gathered. They will also assess potential bottleneck locations in the future railway network. They will then propose local enhancement schemes, in particular those for railway services in the urban area (including constructing parallel lines, extensions or spur lines, adding new stations etc), and conduct the Stage 2 public consultation to further optimise the overall railway development blueprint.
The Stage 1 Public Engagement exercise commenced today and will last until July 21, 2012. Relevant information, such as consultation documents, time and venue of exhibitions and forums etc, have been uploaded to the Our Future Railway dedicated website (www.ourfuturerailway.hk). Hard copies of the relevant publications will be available at various Public Enquiry Service Centres of the Home Affairs Department from next week onwards. Members of the public can forward their comments through the following channels:
Website: www.ourfuturerailway.hk
Email: enquiry@ourfuturerailway.hk
Phone: 3922 9777
Fax: 3922 9713
Post: Railway Development Office, Highways Department
1/F, Ho Man Tin Government Offices,
88 Chung Hau Street, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon
(Please state "Our Future Railway" on the envelope.)
The Stage 2 Public Engagement exercise is tentatively scheduled to be launched at the end of the year.
Ends/Friday, April 20, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:12
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