Hong Kong closes in on rail cost record
By Chris Stewart and Olivia Chung
HONG KONG - Hong Kong legislators have taken a key decision, against
considerable local opposition, advancing construction of what may be the
world's most expensive railway line, a 26-kilometer high-speed link to its
border with Shenzhen with an estimated total cost of HK$66.8 billion (US$8.6
billion).
The Legislative Council's public works subcommittee approved funding for the
all-underground Hong Kong stretch of the 140km Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong
Express Link by 12 votes to eight, with one abstention, with opposition focused
on the high cost.
When the line is built, travel time to Guangzhou will be cut to 48 minutes from
the present one hour 45 minutes. Hong Kong will
then serve as a southern terminus of a proposed China-embracing 18,000 km
high-speed rail network scheduled to be ready by 2020, on which trains will run
as fast as 350km per hour.
Of the HK$66.8 billion approved by the subcommittee, HK$11.8 billion will be
required for public infrastructure works linking a planned 140,000 square meter
underground terminus at West Kowloon, opposite Hong Kong Island, with the
city's own Mass Transit Railway network. The terminus alone will cost an
estimated HK$9.5 billion.
Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corp (MTRC), which is majority owned by the
government and runs the city's underground rail network, is to plan and design
the high-speed link. The job was not put out to tender. Shares of the company,
which is also a leading property developer, have gained about 48% this year in
Hong Kong.
During the subcommittee meeting, members of pan-democratic groups such as the
Democratic Party, which tend to be more critical than others of the local
government and the central authorities in Beijing, questioned the link's huge
cost and placement of the terminus in West Kowloon.
Excluding the associated infrastructure works, the 26km link will cost about
HK$55 billion, or HK$2.1 billion (US$271 million), per km. Strip out the cost
of the terminus, and the bill comes to about US$226 million per km. That is the
most expensive of 15 high-speed links recently built or under construction
around the world, including a 1,318km Beijing-Shanghai link that by 2012 will
cut travel time between the two cities to four hours from 10.
A 345km high-speed line in Taiwan, completed in 2007, cost US$44.71 million per
km; the Beijing-Shanghai link will come in at about US$24.4 million per km. In
Europe, the 425km Rhine-Rhone TGV project in France, to be completed in 2011,
is estimated to cost about US$7.9 million per km, based on figures published by
the South China Morning Post.
Raymond So Wai-man, associate professor in Chinese University's finance
department, said the line would prove too costly for Hong Kong people to use.
"We are worried if the most expensive railway per kilometer built in the world
will end up becoming another white elephant, like the very underused Western
Corridor," So told Asia Times Online.
The Western Corridor, a road link that opened in July 2007, links Tuen Mun in
the western New Territories, an important center for loading and unloading of
containers, to the nearby mainland port of Shekou, in Shenzhen. The road was
built with a predicted use by about 29,800 vehicles per day, but is used by
only about 5,900 cross-border vehicles, due in part to cross-border licensing
restrictions.
As for the possible cost of a ticket to enjoy the new train ride, that remains
an unknown so far as the public is concerned.
Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, Democratic Party, said not enough information had been
released to calculate how much a ticket to Guangzhou might cost. A Transport
and Housing Bureau spokesman in Hong Kong said sufficient information had been
produced regarding the rail link and that the high cost was mainly due to the
West Kowloon terminus being built underground, due to environmental and
conservation concerns.
The harbor-side West Kowloon area - across the water from the city's main
business district but developing into a business center in its own right - is
the focus of another proposed free-spending project by the government, a
HK$21.6 billion cultural hub, with world-renowned architects working on a
master plan for the site to include 15 arts venues.
With the approval for the rail link now given by the public works subcommittee,
the government's funding request will be referred to the finance committee for
formal approval. That is likely to be given, as a majority on the committee
supports the railway, including those from the biggest political party - the
pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong
(DAB). The Alliance argues that Hong Kong will be marginalized if no high-speed
rail link connects the city and other mainland urban centers.
"When taking into context China ... the rail link connecting Guangzhou to Hong
Kong is a lifeline for the latter to maintain its position in the mainland
economy and achieve integration with Guangdong," said DAB deputy chairman Ip
Kwok-him.
If approved by the finance committee, construction of the Hong Kong link is
expected to start this month, with trains to start operating in 2015.
That is well behind the mainland's own related developments. The New Guangzhou
Station in Shibi, at which the Hong Kong trains will eventually terminate in
the mainland, is expected to open next year. By then, a network of high-speed
lines will have been built connecting numerous cities in the Pearl River Delta
region, which takes in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macau. The new railway station
will be Asia's railway station, with a total floor area of 600,000 square
meters.
The Hong Kong link will also be running about two years after completion of the
high-speed east coast service to Shanghai from Hong Kong's cross-border
neighbor, Shenzhen. When Hong Kong can link to that, travel time to Shanghai
will be eight hours and to Beijing 10 hours.
A Hong Kong government source said the high-speed rail link project has been
discussed since it was announced in 2001. He attributed the delay of the
construction of the rail link to feasibility studies.
Early discussions considered a much cheaper alternative - using the existing
tracks of West Rail, a partially above ground metro network. This was ruled out
in August 2007 when Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced that the
new express rail link would be built as a dedicated track.
Tsang pointed to a difference in track widths between Hong Kong and mainland
lines, while several stations on the West Rail line made it unsuitable for a
nonstop express service. Tsang conceded that the dedicated track option
required up to two more years to complete.
A government source downplayed the cost of the Hong Kong express section,
arguing that it cost almost the same as other similar overseas projects built
underground.
At 37.9 km, the Channel Tunnel linking France and Britain has the longest
undersea portion of any tunnel in the world, which cost US$213 million per km.
At today's prices it would have cost US$488 million per km.
A second section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) running into London St
Pancras Station and completed in 2007 was 50% underground and cost US$159
million per km - or US$203 million per km at present prices.
The cost to the mainland of its new network, intended to cover 70% of the
country's cities that have a population of more than 50 million people, will be
more than 2 trillion yuan (US$292 billion), according to the Ministry of
Railway blueprint.
Olivia Chung is a senior Asia Times Online reporter
in Hong Kong.Chris Stewart is the Asia Times Online
Business Editor.
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