LCQ 14: West Rail to be opened before end 2003

Following is a question by the Hon Lau Wong-fat and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (November 19) :

Question : The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) has postponed the target opening date of the West Rail for several times in recent months.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has requested KCRC to submit a report on the repeated postponements of the target opening date of the West Rail; if so, of the details of the report; if not, the reasons for that;

(b) whether it knows the specific reasons for the repeated postponements of the target opening date;

(c) whether it has assessed if the repeated postponements of the target opening date by KCRC reflects professional blunders on the part of the KCRC's staff and if they should be held responsible for that and be punished; if so, of the assessment results; and

(d) of the estimated net income foregone during the period from the target opening date of the West Rail as first announced by the KCRC to the latest target opening date?

Reply :

Madam President,

The Government has been closely monitoring the progress of the West Rail project carried out by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC).  We have noted the problems encountered during the trial operation of West Rail and asked for detailed reports from KCRC on the causes of the problems and rectification measures. 

According to information provided by KCRC, the earth return of the traction power system entered the signalling system via the surge arresters, which caused interference. There were also problems in the signalling system and its interfacing with other systems.  KCRC has taken the following rectification measures:

* Measures have been taken to adjust and debug the software problems. The debugging has been completed.  The software is now in the final stage of fine-tuning.

* With regard to hardware, rigorous stress tests conducted by KCRC indicated that the earth return and surge arresters problems had been resolved after improvement had been made. Under the severe test conditions, loading problems of some of the hardware surfaced.  The test runs became steady again following further consequential improvements and replacement of parts.

Under the KCRC Ordinance, KCRC has to ensure that West Rail is in all aspects safe and sound before its opening.  For this purpose, KCRC has to clearly identify the causes of the problems and take steps to rectify them and conduct rigorous tests.  One important element of the tests is to conduct adjustments to the rail systems after interfacing. According to KCRC, the above interface problems will surface only when actual physical tests are carried out and could not be accurately anticipated during the design stage.  Before its opening, West Rail will also satisfy all statutory requirements under the law and obtain approval from relevant Government departments.  KCRC is now working on this in conjunction with the departments concerned.

The West Rail Project Agreement between Government and KCRC stipulates that West Rail should be opened before end 2003.  KCRC's current target is that West Rail will be opened before end 2003.  This meets the timeframe set out in the Project Agreement.  At this stage there is no question of delay or financial loss.

In response to enquiries by the public on whether the West Rail could be opened ahead of schedule, KCRC made some initial response on possible opening dates, and pointed out that a firm opening date would not be fixed until the trial operation and statutory inspections are satisfactorily completed. The KCRC Managing Board is keeping a close watch on the results of the trial operation and progress of statutory inspections before making a decision on the opening date of West Rail.

Ends/Wednesday, November 19, 2003