Letters | Why pouring more concrete won’t win Carrie Lam more friends among the Hong Kong public

Hong Kong has created white elephants in the mega bridge and high-speed rail, the Lantau Tomorrow Vision is next

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge

Letters

Published: 7:00am, 3 Jun 2019

Why you can trust SCMP

Last week, I travelled to Macau using the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge for the first time. I drove to Tung Chung, took a bus to Hong Kong Port and boarded a bus to Macau. I was very impressed by the facilities and by this construction miracle.

Arriving in Macau was even more amazing, where there was a huge arrival facility, though unfortunately far from the town centre.

However, during my trip up and down to Hong Kong, I counted about 30 cars and maybe 40 half-filled buses.

This project, though beautifully constructed, has cost us billions of Hong Kong dollars. We pleased the central government, but it is an absolute white elephant.

The total trip took me about one hour, which is the same as a ferry ride, which lands you closer to the town centre.

My next trip will be on the high-speed rail connection to Guangzhou, but I can already predict this will not save a lot of time either. This project also has cost us billions of Hong Kong dollars.

The next failure of government to spend money where it is needed – housing, health care, education, elderly care, rising wealth gap, etc – is going to be the Lantau Tomorrow Vision.

This government, like previous ones, continues to fail to pay heed to the real sentiments of the people. Pouring concrete and succumbing to vested interests, as well as to Beijing, isn’t going to give this government credibility. Stranger still, it is alienating itself from the people it is supposed to represent.

Peter den Hartog, Tuen Mun

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