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"The five elements of the new transport strategy will continue to serve as our guiding light to build a sustainable transport system for Hong Kong to meet future development," the Acting Secretary for Transport, Mr Paul Tang, said today (June 18).

"These elements are: Better integration of transport and land use planning; better use of railway as the backbone of our passenger transport system; better public transport services and facilities; better use of advanced technologies in transport management; and better environmental protection," he said.

Speaking at the Conference on "EnviroSeries 2002: Sustainable Transport" organized by the Business Environment Council, Mr Tang said, " It is simply not true that planning of transport infrastructure is taken up separately from the overall land use planning. To the contrary, planning of transport infrastructure aims to dovetail land use planning. We do not build for the sake of building and transport infrastructure must serve some planning objectives."

"We will also incorporate concepts such as pedestrianization, comprehensive pedestrian walkway system and possible use of environmentally-friendly transport modes into the planning process," he said.

To ensure that our transport system adequately cateus for the increase in cross boundary traffic, the Transport Bureau has been actively taking part in the HK 2030 Study led by the Planning Department which will look into the need for and timing of new cross-boundary transport links.

The Transport Bureau has identified rail, the most efficient and environmentally friendly mass carrier, as the backbone of Hong Kong's transport system.

"Starting from this year, there will be a rail coming into operation almost every year - the Tseung Kwan O Extension in August this year, the West Rail in 2003, the Ma On Shan Rail and the Tsim Sha Tsim Extension in 2004, the Penny's Bay Rail Link in 2005 and the Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau Spur Line in 2007," Mr Tang said.

Another six rails are recommended to be completed in 2008-2016. These include the Shatin to Central Link, Island Line Extensions, Kowloon Southern Link, Regional Express Line which will become part of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-HK Express Rail, Northern Link, and Port Rail Line. With the completion of the twelve rails, the population catchment of the rail will be as high as 70 per cent as compared with 50 per cent at the moment.

"Nevertheless, railways can not completely replace roads. Roads have an important role in delivering goods and serving areas inaccessible by railways." Mr Tang continued.

"Nevertheless, great care is now put in drawing up the alignments of new roads and we conduct annual reviews on the need, scope and timing of strategic roads under planning. Noise barriers, depressed roads or tunnels are measures considered early in the planning process to minimize the environmental impact of such projects."

Apart from promoting the use of the railway in planning, the Government also actively promotes the use of other public transport services, and their integration with the railway system.

He cited the Tseung Kwan O Extension (TKE) as an example to show that the Government recognizes a constant need to review the public transport network to ensure that the various modes of transport are well coordinated to operate in an efficient manner.

"When TKE is opened later this year, it will more than double the capacity of the external public transport services for Tseung Kwan O. It will offer convenient, fast, frequent and reliable services to TKO residents, about 80 per cent of whom will be within walking distance to the railway stations. There will be substantial changes to the travel pattern of passengers, many of whom are expected to use the new railway.

"We are now undergoing an intensive consultation process to draw up a public transport service plan for the area. There will be changes to road-based public transport services including frequency adjustment, route modification or cancellation of services which duplicate with the TKE, whilst at the same time feeder services to the rail stations will be enhanced.

"It has not been a straight forward exercise and we have found it necessary to refine our proposals to address the concerns of the local community. The balancing act is never easy, but we will not shy away from it," he said

On better use of advanced technologies, Mr Tang said, "We have developed a comprehensive Intelligent Transport System (ITS) strategy which comprises two main elements - the Transport Information System (TIS) which provides a central database for easy and efficient access by Government departments, transport operators and the public; and a Traffic Management Framework (TMF) which puts all existing traffic control functions under a coordinated central command."

With more effective and efficient transport management, road capacity would increase, travelling time saved and road safety enhanced. In addition, there will be benefits on the environment from savings in fuel consumption and reduction in vehicle emission and improvement in public health overall.

"A lot of efforts have been devoted to making road-based public transport more environmentally friendly. For example, over 80 per cent of the taxi fleet have already converted to LPG, and all new taxis registered from January 2001 onwards run on LPG. Our whole franchised bus fleet has switched to the use of Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel since February 2001, and all buses with pre-Euro engine have been retrofitted with diesel catalysts.

"We will continue to provide an efficient, safe, reliable and environmentally friendly transportation system which can support sustainability and the future development in Hong Kong," he added.

End/Tuesday, June 18, 2002

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