Hong Kong judge rejects bid to halt controversial joint-checkpoint plan for high-speed rail link, citing HK$553 million monthly cost
Ousted lawmaker Baggio Leung and former civil servant Kwok Cheuk-kin had applied for injunction as train services were expected to commence before other court challenges would be heard
A Hong Kong judge on Tuesday refused to put the brakes on a controversial joint-checkpoint plan for the new cross-border high-speed rail link, ruling that the cost of doing so – amounting to HK$553 million (US$70.5 million) a month – would be too high, in a judgment that cleared the way for its launch next month.
In an expedited decision, High Court Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming turned down the request by ousted pro-independence lawmaker Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and former civil servant Kwok Cheuk-kin, just days after their application for a temporary ban.
The judge ruled there would be “a lower risk of injustice” if he rejected the injunction given the financial interests involved in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link. A suspension would have led to a loss of HK$553 million in estimated monthly revenue and maintenance costs, as well as delayed job opportunities for those employed for the projects, according to the government.
“It cannot be seriously disputed that the financial losses would, on any view of the matter, be very substantial,” Chow wrote in a 15-page judgment on Tuesday.
Leung and Kwok were among five people seeking judicial reviews of the so-called co-location plan at the new West Kowloon terminus for the rail link, arguing that the unprecedented arrangement to make national laws applicable in the city was unconstitutional.