Harbour Crossing Tunnel

The Harbour Crossing Tunnel is a 1.4-kilometre (1,500 yd) dual-track railway, reinforced concrete, immersed tube tunnel across Victoria Harbour. Connecting the City of Victoria and Kowloon in the former British dependent territory of Hong Kong, its construction by Kumagai Gumi[1] commenced in 1976. Its deepest point is at 24.24 m (79.5 ft). The binocular sections[2] were constructed in Chai Wan.[3][4][5][6]

Not to be confused with Cross-Harbour Tunnel or Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel.

An entrance/exit of the Admiralty station on the southern end of the tunnel
The platforms of the Tsim Sha Tsui station on the northern end of the tunnel

History

First proposed as early as 1967[7] in a study commissioned by the government in 1966,[8] it was the first railway tunnel to cross the Victoria Harbour and also the first subsea railway tunnel in the territory. It was the second fixed crossing to cross the harbour, after the vehicular Cross Harbour Tunnel opened in 1972 as part of the territory's Route 1. The pair of stations on both ends of the tunnel are, respectively, Admiralty and Tsim Sha Tsui (where it continues through Kowloon as a cut-and-cover and bored tunnel beneath Nathan Road towards its junction with Boundary Street and onwards through Bishop Hill).

A plaque in Charter station commemorating the 1980 opening of the entire Modified Initial System.

Upon its opening in 1980, it was part of the Modified Initial System of the territory's MTR. The full Modified Initial System was opened on 12 February 1980 by Princess Alexandra, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. She also rode the inaugural train through the immersed tube beneath Victoria Harbour to Chater station, which was renamed Central station in 1985.[9][10] In 1982 the tunnel became part of the network's Tsuen Wan line.

Patronage

It has been heavily used in terms of ridership as soon as it entered service. Between 1988 and 1993, a surcharge was imposed on passengers through the tunnel along with Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui on the "Nathan Road corridor" in the morning peak on weekdays[11][12][13] in order to bring the pphpd level under 75,000.[14] Passengers were encouraged to use the Eastern Harbour Crossing (EHC), opened in 1989 to connect Kwun Tong and Quarry Bay stations of the MTR. Fare adjustment machines were installed along the passageways between the two levels of platforms at Quarry Bay, the interchange station between the Kwun Tong and Island lines, to identify passengers who took the EHC to cross the harbour. The Transport Department, under the Transport Branch, also commissioned KMB to operate a new bus route, numbered 300, through the neighbouring Cross-Harbour Tunnel.[15] The MTR service across Eastern Harbour Crossing would go on to be congested too in the mid-1990s.[16]

See also

References
  1. "Giant shapes HK". South China Morning Post. 23 December 1993. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  2. MTR Corporation Limited. "An historical picture showing the pre-cast units of first cross-harbour rail tunnel between Tsim Sha Tsui and Admiralty stations when it was under construction in 1977". Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  3. Lo, Joseph Y C; Maunsell AECOM (28 March 2008). "The State-of-Art Technology for Immersed Tube Tunnel in Hong Kong and Korea" (PDF). psdas.gov.hk. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  4. Lo, Joseph Y C; Tsang, C K; Maunsell AECOM (28 March 2008). "State-of-Art Technology for Immersed Tube Tunnel in Hong Kong and Korea; pp. 46, 47, 51" (PDF). psdas.gov.hk.
  5. Wong, Marcus (16 May 2017). "Underwater tunnels of the Hong Kong MTR". Checkerboard Hill. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  6. Morris, Martin; Yang, Morgan W. W.; Tsang, Chor Kin; Hu, Alan Y. M.; Shut, Dunson S. C. (1 November 2016). "An overview of subsea tunnel engineering in Hong Kong, chapter 2.2 on p.2". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers – Civil Engineering. 169 (6): 9–15. doi:10.1680/jcien.15.00073. ISSN 0965-089X. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  7. Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates (1967). Hong Kong Mass Transport Study (Report).CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Rail Mass Transit for Developing Countries: Proceedings of the Conference Organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers, and Held in London on 9–10 October 1989 Archived 5 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Thomas Telford, 1990, p. 141
  9. Annual Report 1979. Hong Kong: Mass Transit Railway Corporation. 1980.
  10. "MTR Service Update". facebook.com/mtrupdate. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  11. "MTR passengers face Nathan Rd surcharge". South China Morning Post. 12 August 1993. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  12. "MTR to drop rush-hour surcharge". South China Morning Post. 8 April 1993. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  13. "Pressure on MTR to cut prices". South China Morning Post. 23 March 1993. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  14. "Hansard" (PDF). Legislative Council. 27 April 1988. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 October 2019. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  15. Wah Kiu Yat Po (14 May 1991). "九巴新綫 波霸剪綵 繪上芳容 吸引乘客". Urban Council Public Libraries (in Cantonese). Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  16. "MTR safety fears over KCR freeze". South China Morning Post. 18 February 1994. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.

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