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East Rail to boost service in bid to win link backing

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THE KCRC's East Rail is to increase services to try to win legislators' support for the controversial Ma On Shan link.

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Chairman Yeung Kai-yin said the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation was also considering allowing some of the proposed Ma On Shan services to extend to Kowloon Tong.

An $8.5 billion funding proposal for the link, together with a line from Hunghom to Tsim Sha Tsui, was withdrawn in July after the Democratic Party, The Frontier and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) threatened to vote down the application.

They said the link should extend to Kowloon instead of terminating at Tai Wai.

Mr Yeung said East Rail now ran 20 times an hour, but the frequency could be pushed to 27 after existing signal, brake and acceleration systems were upgraded.

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New carriages with fewer seats would increase capacity by 15 per cent from 3,250 to 3,750.

The combined effect would be to increase overall capacity 38 per cent to 90,000 passengers an hour.

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