The amendments were made following a decision by the MTR Corp and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation.

The KCRC, which was selected to build and operate a railway line linking Sha Tin to Central in June 2002, put forward planning proposals in February 2004.

The rail companies both put forth new proposals under which the KCRC and MTR Corp's interchange stations will be provided at Diamond Hill, Ho Man Tin, Exhibition and Admiralty.

The paper also shows a proposed Causeway Bay North station will be scrapped 'in view of the possible serious disruption to traffic in the Causeway Bay area arising from the construction of the station and the low cost-effectiveness of providing the station under the merge scenario'.

It also says 'the location of the Central South station should be revisited' although the reasons for this are not apparent in the paper.

The proposed Exhibition interchange station on Harbour Road will also be relocated to the public transport interchange site in Wan Chai 'to better cope with development in the area and provide better interchange with the future North Hong Kong Island Line'.

Under the original KCRC proposal, automated people movers were proposed for Whampoa and Tsz Wan Shan to link the areas with the MTR line. But this idea will be scrapped, at least for Whampoa, which will be serviced by an extended Kwun Tong line.

While the paper does not state clearly that the Tsz Wan Shan people mover will be scrapped, it says 'it is suggested that alternative options should be explored, taking into account the existing public transport services'.

This could come as bad news to residents who have been calling for an MTR extension to the area for years.

The whole scheme will see an east-west line and a north-south line and a further 10 stations, from Tai Wai via Ho Man Tin to Central.

But further changes are in the pipeline, as the original population projection for the Kai Tak planning area was 260,000, but has now dropped to 80,000.

This could affect the viability of both the To Kwa Wan and Ma Tau Wai stations.

The government is also still in discussion with the rail companies over the Wan Chai Development Phase II Review, which could see further changes to the proposals for the rail line.

In 2003, the rail project - estimated to cost HK$33 billion - was awarded to the KCRC after a bitter battle with the MTR Corp. At the time, the MTR Corp warned that the Sha Tin to Central rail link would threaten its market share of cross-harbour services and poach its passengers.