Transport chief firm on rejecting Canton Rd station Saving shoppers a five-minute walk is not worth the $1.8 billion it would cost to build an extra railway station, the transport minister said yesterday. And in any case, walking is good for your health, said Sarah Liao Sau-tung. The secretary for environment, transport and works was giving the government's reasons for not going ahead with a station at the Canton Road shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. She said the centre and other major shopping plazas were just a four- to five-minute walk from the site of the already planned West Kowloon station on the Kowloon-Canton Railway's proposed $8.3 billion Southern Link line. 'Is walking that difficult? Of course, it may not be easy in summer, but the department of health has advised the public to walk more as a form of exercise,' she told the Legislative Council's transport panel at a meeting of its railway subcommittee. The argument did not impress Liberal Party legislator Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee, who said if the health benefits of walking could be a reason for not building a station, 'what is the point of having public transport?' Equally unimpressed was Federation of Trade Unions representative Wong Kwok-hing, who walked out after complaining that the government had ignored a call from the 18 district councils to reserve land for construction of the extra station in the future. Dr Liao said reserving the land would cost $500 million and building the station in the future another $2 billion. The cost of the station would add dramatically to the cost of the new line linking West Rail's Nam Cheong terminus and the East Rail's Tsim Sha Tsui station, which would be reflected in ticket prices, she said. Marathon talks between the government and the Canton Road area's biggest landlord, Wharf (Holdings), broke down because they could not agree on sharing the cost of the station. The government also rejected Wharf's request for 600,000 sqft of land to compensate it for 280,000 sqft of its own land needed for the station.
