West Rail On Schedule To Open In Late 2003 - Kowloon Canton Railway Corp.'s West Rail in Hong Kong

International Railway Journal, March, 2000 by David Briginshaw

Thoms also tried to explain why Hong Kong has such an excellent track record for completing projects on time. "We have a highly motivated professional workforce with a 'can-do' attitude. People are willing to go that extra mile to get a project done. We try to avoid vitriolic arguments between contractors. Our consultant engineer has to report to us if any changes to a contract are proposed. If this is likely to result in a delay, we all sit down together to see bow we can avoid it. If a contractor comes up with a cheaper solution, we will split the saving.

"The key to building a railway today is to allow enough time to integrate systems, and to test and commission the system, especially the man-machine interface. Always ask if it is really necessary to connect one system to another; if not, don't do it. We have a consultant to audit the software interfaces so that they all work properly when we start to operate the railway.

"We will have a sacrosanct three-month trial period operating period. If people aren't trained properly to react or carry out the correct emergency procedures, you aren't going to run a very good railway."

Thoms is a great believer in using tried and tested equipment, as he explained: "Writing tight performance specifications does ensure that you stay just behind the cutting edge of technology and not on it or even beyond it."

Another feature of rail projects in Hong Kong is that there are no operating subsidies. "Generally, we are looking for an internal rate-of-return of 8%--if we can get more than this that would be great," Thoms told IRJ. "We have to operate on prudent commercial principles, although we do get equity injections for major projects like West Rail."

Thoms is fairly confident that the project will be completed on time and within budget. "We are on programme so far," he affirmed. He also pointed out that virtually all of the civil engineering contracts, worth about $HK 25 billion, have been let now along with several major operating system contracts. This means a lot of the financial risk has been removed.

There will be some major engineering structures on the new line. The southern section in Kowloon between Nam Cheong and Mei Foo will parallel the Airport Railway, but most of it will be enclosed apart from a short section of cut-and-cover tunnel. The entire section between Mei Foo and the depot will be underground including Tsuen Wan West station which will be constructed on reclaimed land. The 3.6km Kwai Tsing tunnels between Mei Foo and Tsuen Wan West will consist of a 1.7km drill-and-blast 13m-diameter tunnel under Lai King Hill, a 1.78km twin-bored tunnel, each bore being 8.4m in diameter, and 120m of cut-and-cover. North of Tsuen Wan West the line will pass through the 5.5km Tai Lam tunnel (the longest transport tunnel in Hong Kong) which will be bored through rock.

Virtually the entire line between Kam Sheung Road and Tuen Mun will be elevated. "This is a key feature of the project," Mr Jayananda Jesudason, KCRC's general manager, construction, for West Rail, told IRJ in Hong Kong. "This is the first major civil engineering project in the area, so right from the design stage we had to recognise the needs of the area to ensure that the railway will have the minimum impact." In practical terms this means special measures to keep noise levels as low as possible (IRJ January p15). "It's much easier to build in noise reduction methods at the start rather than revisiting it later," Jesudason observed.