No more room for expansion at crowded and boxed-in station

It is a great pity that your correspondent 'Name And Address Supplied' (letter headlined, 'KCRC lacks vision needed to solve complex issues', South China Morning Post, September 12), did not check the facts before the letter was published.

The writer displayed a lack of understanding of railway operations by making unfounded allegations about the KCR Corporation's current service and new projects.

His assertion that cross-boundary demand cannot be satisfied by East Rail trains alone shows that he does not understand the underlying problem.

The physical limitations at Lowu and not train capacity, control the number of passengers using the crossing at any one time. Further expansion of Lo Wu Station is prevented by the presence of Sandy Ridge Cemetery and Lowu Village to the east and the Ng Tung River and Tak Yuet Lau Village to the west.

If space for expansion was available, the Government and the KCRC would have chosen this option. Again, there is no question of the Lowu service being constrained by freight and domestic passenger operations. At present, service to Lowu only accounts for 60 per cent of the line capacity.

We could run more trains to Lowu were it not been for the overcrowding problem there.