Stacy Shi
Authorities and the MTR Corp should improve the design of West Kowloon Station to shorten the time needed for passengers to go through Hong Kong and mainland checkpoints, Election Committee lawmaker Simon Lee Hoey said.
Speaking on radio yesterday, Lee said High Speed Rail can take passengers from West Kowloon to Futian railway stations in 15 minutes, but they need to spend about 10 minutes to complete immigration clearance at West Kowloon.
Lee said the authorities should adopt measures to facilitate processing travelers as more people are taking the High-speed rail.
In the short term, the SAR and the mainland could coordinate the opening of additional gates to ease the passenger queues, he said.
The mid-term measures could involve overall architectural design of the station to shorten road sections between boundary crossings and provide additional seats and convenience stores at the waiting areas. In the long term, he hoped authorities could consider relaxing the boundary crossing checks at the West Kowloon Station, and leave it to the mainland side to handle checks.
Meanwhile, passengers felt clearance procedures at the station were complicated, with some arriving at the station three hours ahead of the departure time, worried of missing the train.
The West Kowloon Station now adopts a co-location boundary control system in that travelers need to pass through security checks twice. A university student, Mai, hopes the checks could be reduced to one time.
A mainlander surnamed Zheng noted some inconveniences at the station compared with mainland stations, such as fewer on-site staff and vague signs to the information desk.
Separately, Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun slammed the increase in construction cost of the planned Sha Tin trunk road T4 connecting Shing Mun Tunnel Road and Tsing Sha Highway with Sha Tin Road, since the proposal was first floated in 2006.
According to the papers submitted to Legco last Friday, the cost of the project is currently estimated to be HK$7.1 billion, far exceeding the HK$1.1 billion proposed in 2006.
Tien questioned whether the administration had not been prudent in its initial estimation and whether they found that they had omitted some items essential to the project.
He added that the difference in estimates was too large and lacked explanation, and the administration should no longer treat Legco as an automated teller machine.
But former director of civil engineering and development Aaron Bok Kwok-ming said the construction cost was reasonable, as it has taken into account inflation and a road extension in the new plan.
Bok said the authorities had explained that after several consultations, changes such as shifting the tunnel westward, lengthening the connections, building tunnels and viaducts, were needed.
”The road will be one-third longer, and this will add HK$1 billion,” he added.
He said there will be a lag between the previous cost estimation and the current price level, and changes to the project would increase construction difficulty.
stacy.shi@singtaonewscorp.com
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