Time to get into gear on Kai Tak transport
- Mothballed plan for elevated train at huge Hong Kong development may finally see the light of day following complaints from stranded visitors and residents
Three years after it was mothballed, an elevated train for Kai Tak may be back on track for the massive development on the site of Hong Kong’s former international airport. Steps to address a lack of public transport to serve the district are to be welcomed. Authorities must not allow the next phase to be derailed by indecision and procrastination that some blame for the shelving of the project after 11 years and HK$90 million invested in feasibility studies.
Plans for a monorail connecting Kai Tak, Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay were dropped in late 2020 after the government cited concerns about its HK$12 billion price tag and fears it would be “severely constrained by the adjacent congested developments”.
The project had gone through multiple planning changes and delays amid social unrest in 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic that followed. It was replaced by proposals for a mix of electric vehicles on bus and minibus routes, a network of moving walkways and promenades, open spaces for pedestrians and cyclists as well as an elevated landscape deck.
But transport has not kept up with development at the site as people have started moving into completed homes. The cruise terminal at Kai Tak also reopened to vessels only to have tourists initially left high and dry while officials scrambled to get more taxis and minibuses to serve the area.
A source told the Post that the government was poised to resurrect the railway option as part of a proposed mix of mass transit systems for the 320-hectare district.
Vigorous competition to build the line is expected from at least four Hong Kong and possibly two mainland companies. Kowloon City district councillor Cheung King-fan said an elevated train would be welcomed as long as it was a “green transit system” with a reasonable construction cost and noise-control measures. Authorities said their goal was to create a second core business district at Kai Tak, but one lawmaker said the stops and starts over transport planning had become an “international joke”.
Resolving the transport shortfall will not be cheap. Failure to act decisively, however, may take a costly toll on the city’s reputation.
