MTR Corp (MTRC) has questioned the fairness of a government proposal to revise the route of the $33 billion Sha Tin-Central rail link - a project that the company lost to rival Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp (KCRC) last year.
Controversy over the rail link intensified yesterday after the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Sarah Liao Sau-tung, said KCRC was studying an option to extend its East Rail, which now terminates in Hunghom, across the harbour.
It is understood the option has further disappointed MTRC and is expected to widen a long-running rift between the two rail firms.
'Taking the East Rail across the harbour [rather than the Sha Tin-Central rail link] ... was specifically rejected in the government rail development strategy,' an MTRC spokesman said, adding that the corporation saw the proposed extension of the East Rail to the Hong Kong Island as a violation of the original bidding conditions.
MTRC was seeking the government's clarification on its rail policy, he said.
A spokesman for the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau said extending the East Rail was just 'one of the alternatives' KCRC was studying and a decision would be made late this year or early next year.
Ms Liao, who hopes the option will allow passengers to travel from Beijing to Central directly without having to change trains, called for the route review in light of shifting demographics and population growth.