Kwun Tong Line

Kwun Tong Line 觀塘綫
Metro-Cammell trains on a viaduct near Kowloon Bay Station
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	MTR
Locale	Districts: Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong, Sai Kung
Stations	15
Ridership	604,600 daily average (weekdays, September 2014)[1]
Operation
Opened	1 October 1979
Technical
Track gauge	1,432 mm (4 ft 8 ^3⁄8 in)
Electrification	1.5 kV DC
Route map Legend Whampoa Ho Man Tin       Sha Tin to Central Link to Tuen Mun   East Rail Line to Hung Hom   Tsuen Wan Line to Central  Yau Ma Tei Mong Kok      Prince Edward       Tsuen Wan Line to Tsuen Wan  Shek Kip Mei Kowloon Tong       East Rail Line to Lo Wu/Lok Ma Chau  Lok Fu Wong Tai Sin  Sha Tin to Central Link to Wu Kai Sha  Diamond Hill      Choi Hung Kowloon Bay Depot Kowloon Bay Ngau Tau Kok Kwun Tong Lam Tin  Tseung Kwan O Line to North Point  Yau Tong      Tiu Keng Leng       Tseung Kwan O Line to Po Lam/LOHAS Park

Kwun Tong Line
Traditional Chinese	觀塘綫
Simplified Chinese	观塘线
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guāntáng xiàn Yue: Cantonese Jyutping gun1 tong4 sin3 Yale Romanization gūn tòhng sin

The Kwun Tong Line is one of the ten lines of the MTR network in Hong Kong. It starts at Yau Ma Tei in West Kowloon and ends at Tiu Keng Leng in Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung. It is indicated in green on the MTR map. During the morning rush hour, the Kwun Tong Line utilises 27 trains on the tracks and keeps a 2.1 minute train interval. It currently travels through 15 stations in 27 minutes along its route.

Route map

Geographically accurate map of the MTR Kwun Tong Line

History

The Kwun Tong Line was the first MTR line to enter service, and was a crucial part of the MTR "Modified Initial System". Its construction was approved in November 1975.

On 1 October 1979 service commenced on the Kwun Tong Line. The line ran between Shek Kip Mei Station and Kwun Tong Station, and each train consisted of four cars.

With extensions to the south, the line reached Tsim Sha Tsui on 31 December 1979, and on 12 February 1980 it first reached Central station (named Chater at the time), crossing the harbour for the first time.

When the Tsuen Wan Line started service in May 1982, it took over the section of the Kwun Tong Line south of Argyle (present-day Mong Kok). Waterloo (present-day Yau Ma Tei) station became the terminus of the Kwun Tong Line and both Argyle and Prince Edward stations became interchange stations with the new line.

When the Hong Kong government decided to build a second harbour crossing in 1984 (which would be known as the Eastern Harbour Crossing), it awarded a franchise for the construction of a mixed rail and road tunnel under the harbour.
The Kwun Tong Line was the rail line using that tunnel and on 6 August 1989, it was extended over the harbour again. This time the terminus was Quarry Bay, a transfer station with the Island Line. An intermediate station, Lam Tin, was opened on 1 October of the same year.

The first derailment in MTR history (excluding ex-KCR lines) took place at Kowloon Bay Station in 1994. The seventh carriage of a train pulling into the station at about 60 kph jumped the tracks on 28 January 1994, on a section of track adjacent to the MTR headquarters building. Nobody was injured but train services were disrupted. The incident was blamed on a bolt in the train's suspension system which had worked itself loose, causing the weight load to be concentrated on the rear wheels of the carriage.^[2]

As part of the Tseung Kwan O Line project, Kwun Tong Line was briefly extended to North Point on 27 September 2001 but soon diverted to Tiu Keng Leng when the Tseung Kwan O Line opened in August, 2002. The diversion was done in two phases: Yau Tong interchange station was opened on 4 August 2002 such that Kwun Tong Line did not cross the harbour anymore. Two weeks later (18 August 2002) the Kwun Tong Line was extended to Tiu Keng Leng when the rest of the Tseung Kwan O Line commenced service. While disused, the tunnel linking Kwun Tong Line to Eastern Harbour Crossing is regularly maintained and can be utilized in the event of a disruption on the Tseung Kwan O Line.^[3]

On 16 December 2013, a train on the Tseung Kwan O Line broke down, halting train services on the entire line for several hours. To prevent the cross-harbour train service from being disrupted, all Kwun Tong Line trains temporarily used the old tracks from Lam Tin to Quarry Bay, and terminated at North Point, as they did before the opening of the Tseung Kwan O Line.^[3] This was the first time since 2002 that the Lam Tin to Quarry Bay tracks were utilised for regular service.

Realignment of Kwun Tong Line upon the inauguration of Tseung Kwan O Line.

Route description

Kwun Tong Line is mostly underground, and runs from the west to the east. It begins at Yau Ma Tei station, and runs underneath Nathan Road parallel to the Tsuen Wan Line up to Prince Edward. The line then moves east, and splits from the Tsuen Wan Line. The line then emerges after Choi Hung station, and runs on a viaduct above Kwun Tong Road between Kowloon Bay and Lam Tin Stations.

After Lam Tin station, the line travels through a tunnel in a hill and emerges above ground level at Yau Tong Station (although the line is completely covered at this point). The line also converges with the Tseung Kwan O Line. The Kwun Tong Line travels through another tunnel beneath the Tseung Kwan O cemetery before terminating at Tiu Keng Leng, located in Tseung Kwan O.

Stations

This is a list of all the stations on the Kwun Tong Line. The coloured boxes holding the station name represents the unique colour for each station.

Livery and name		District	Connection(s)	Date opened
Kwun Tong Line
	Whampoa*	Kowloon City		Opening 3rd or 4th quarter 2016[4]
	Ho Man Tin*		East West Corridor	Opening 3rd or 4th quarter 2016[4]
	Yau Ma Tei Formerly Waterloo	Yau Tsim Mong	Tsuen Wan Line^1	31 December 1979
	Mong Kok Formerly Argyle		Tsuen Wan Line^2
	Prince Edward		Tsuen Wan Line	10 May 1982
	Shek Kip Mei	Sham Shui Po		1 October 1979
	Kowloon Tong	Kowloon City	East Rail Line
	Lok Fu	Wong Tai Sin
	Wong Tai Sin
	Diamond Hill
	Choi Hung
		Kwun Tong
	Kowloon Bay
	Ngau Tau Kok
	Kwun Tong
	Lam Tin			1 October 1989
	Yau Tong		Tseung Kwan O Line	4 August 2002
	Tiu Keng Leng	Sai Kung		18 August 2002

Notes

* Under construction

¹ Yau Ma Tei Station is an unannounced interchange station. Changing trains in this station lacks the convenience of cross-platform interchange in Mong Kok Station. The platforms for the      Kwun Tong Line and      Tsuen Wan Line in Yau Ma Tei station are on separate levels.
² Mong Kok Station is not a transfer station to the Mong Kok East Station of the      East Rail Line, but the two stations are connected with a footbridge. Walking time is around 10–15 minutes.

• Full list of MTR stations

Tiu Keng Leng Station, the east terminus of Kwun Tong Line.

Kowloon Bay station, at platform level

Future development

The MTRC commenced construction in 2011 to extend the Kwun Tong Line, from Yau Ma Tei to Whampoa via Ho Man Tin. The new Ho Man Tin Station will allow interchange between Kwun Tong Line and the East West Corridor of the new Sha Tin-Central Link. The extension is expected to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2016.^[5] Earlier plans revealed about the extension to Fortress Hill.

See also

• Transport in Hong Kong
• List of places in Hong Kong

References

1. "Weekday patronage of MTR heavy rail network from September 1 to 27 and September 28 to October 25, 2014" (PDF). Legislative Council. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
2. Ball, Steve (9 February 1994). "Bolt blamed for MTR derailment". South China Morning Post.
3. Cheung Chi-fai, Clifford Lo and Stuart Lau (16 December 2013). "Thousands hit in five hours of travel chaos after MTR power blackout". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
4. "MTR Updates Construction Progress on SIL(E) and KTE Railway Projects" (PDF). MTR Corporation. 2014-06-12.
5. MTR Kwun Tong Line Extension

External links

• Proposed extension to Ho Man Tin and Whampoa Garden (Adobe Systems Acrobat pdf format)