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Following is a question by Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at the Legislative Council meeting today (February 19):
Question:
Recently, some Tsing Yi residents have relayed to me that due to the low frequency of the MTR Tung Chung Line trains, which they usually take to travel between Tsing Yi Station and Hong Kong Station, they are often unable to board the train. On the other hand, the patronage of the Airport Express which stops at these two stations en route has yet to reach its maximum capacity. They are of the view that the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) has failed to make optimal use of the passenger capacity of the Airport Express to meet the transport need of Tsing Yi residents. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
(a) it knows the maximum design daily capacity of the Airport Express and its average actual daily patronage in the past 10 years; if there is a great discrepancy between the two figures, whether it has looked into the reasons for the discrepancy, and whether MTRCL implemented any measure in the past three years to increase the patronage of the Airport Express; if MTRCL did, of the results achieved;
(b) it knows if it is technically feasible to increase the train frequency of Tung Chung Line during peak hours; if it is not feasible, of the details; if it is feasible, of the reasons why MTRCL has not made full use of the capacity of the Tung Chung Line to enhance its service;
(c) it knows the respective total hourly frequencies and patronages of trains of the Airport Express and Tung Chung Line running between Tsing Yi Station and Kowloon Station and those running between Tsing Yi Station and Hong Kong Station during peak hours and non-peak hours; and
(d) it has encouraged MTRCL to introduce an Airport Express Monthly Pass similar to the Tung Chung Line Monthly Pass to provide Tsing Yi residents with one more transport option and attract Tsing Yi residents to switch from riding on cross-harbour buses to railway, so as to increase the patronage of the Airport Express and implement the policy objective of "revolving around a railing-based network complemented by bus services", put forward in the 2013 Policy Address; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My consolidated reply to the four parts of Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki's question is as follows:
The Airport Railway comprises the Airport Express (AEL) and Tung Chung Line (TCL). AEL provides a dedicated express service linking city centre, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and AsiaWorld-Expo, stopping at five stations including AsiaWorld-Expo, Airport, Tsing Yi, Kowloon and Hong Kong Stations. TCL provides a domestic mass transit service with eight stations including Tung Chung, Sunny Bay, Tsing Yi, Lai King, Nam Cheong, Olympic, Kowloon and Hong Kong Stations. Passengers travelling on TCL may interchange at Sunny Bay, Lai King, Nam Cheong and Hong Kong Stations for Disneyland Resort Line, Tsuen Wan Line, West Rail Line and Island Line (at Central Station) respectively and head to other districts.
According to MTRCL, the existing average per hour per direction carrying capacity of AEL is 4 800. The average daily patronage of AEL in 2013 is 40 000. The highest patronage in an hour per direction is 2 200 and the loading is 46%. The patronage statistics of AEL in past ten years are at Annex.
As the clienteles of AEL are mainly passengers travelling to and from HKIA, MTRCL advises that its patronage is affected by various factors such as travel season and overall economic conditions, etc, and fluctuates. Thus, it is considered not appropriate to make direct comparison between AEL and other local railway lines.
Having regard to the growing loading in recent years, MTRCL has enhanced train frequency of AEL from 12 minutes to 10 minutes since January 2012, with a view to providing a better travelling environment for passengers.
To attract more passengers to ride on AEL, MTRCL introduces from time to time different kinds of fare concessions such as group tickets and child concessions, etc. In addition, MTRCL offers two kinds of Airport Express Morning Express Service, namely "Kowloon – Hong Kong" and "Tsing Yi – Hong Kong" Morning Express Services. These services are available from 7am to 10am from Monday to Saturday (except Public Holidays) and the fare is $20. Tickets are available at the Airport Express Customer Service Centres at Kowloon or Tsing Yi Stations. According to MTRCL's statistics, there are on the average around 830 passengers enjoying the said services each day and around 90% of them get on board at Tsing Yi Station.
The frequency of TCL trains stopping at Tsing Yi Station during morning peak hours is 4 minutes. To cope with the service demand during morning peak hours, around one-third of these trains depart from Tsing Yi Station (as the terminus) heading towards Hong Kong Station. As for Tsing Yi Station, there is one AEL train after every two TCL trains stopping at Tsing Yi Station. The train frequency of TCL during non-peak hours ranges from 6.5 to 12 minutes.
Currently, the existing per hour per direction carrying capacity of TCL during peak hours is 37 500 and the highest patronage in the busiest hour is 22 400. The busiest section of TCL is from Olympic Station to Kowloon Station and the average loading during peak hours is 60%. It is considered the existing train frequency could meet the service demand.
MTRCL advises that TCL and AEL are two railway lines of different nature. Their major clienteles, peak and non-peak hours, alignments, number of stations and train frequencies, etc. are different. For example, TCL's peak hours are morning and evening (before and after working hours) but these are not necessarily the peak hours of AEL. As regards the alignment, TCL trains running to and from Tsing Yi Station and Hong Kong Station stop at Lai King, Nam Cheong, Olympic and Kowloon Stations, but AEL trains stop at Kowloon Station only. Having regard to the various reasons above, MTRCL considers it inappropriate to directly add up the peak and non-peak hours train frequencies and patronage of these two railway lines.
Ends/Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:20
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