It’s been three years since my last trip to Hong Kong, so it’s time for another visit.
You’d think by now I would have run out of new things to see, but I’ve got quite a list places to visit in order to fill gaps on this website:
- Boat cruise to see the pink dolphins
- See what is left of the Rumsey station ghost platforms
- Check out the expanded interchange station at Admiralty
- Ride the driverless trains of the South Island line
- Inspect the Kwun Tong line extension
- Visit the ship shaped shopping centre at Whampoa
- See the 8 car trains on the Ma On Shan line
- Find the stub tracks on the Tung Chung line at Kwai Chung
- Photograph every reversing loop on the MTR Light Rail system
- Inspect the unbuilt track stubs on the MTR Light Rail
And finally – visit every tram depot and termini on the Hong Kong Tramways.
Will two weeks be enough – I surely hope so!
Footnote
I’ve marked all of the above, plus a few other things to see on a Google Map:
What about West Kowloon station and the high speed railway?
My son wants to go for a ride on the “fast train” but the hassle of organising a China visa is too much, so we’ll have to give it a miss.
There is a ‘Visa on Arrival’ scheme, but it only covers Shenzhen:
https://www.ausbt.com.au/how-to-get-a-shenzhen-visa-on-arrival-when-visiting-from-hong-kong
I don’t think you should bother visiting the Rumsey platforms. They’re completely boarded up with beige acrylic panels (which are absolutely everywhere anyway), and there’s nothing else to look at other than the escalators and the staircase.
Interestingly, though, the staircase to the Chai Wan-bound platform isn’t on the station layout map (https://www.mtr.com.hk/archive/en/services/layouts/shw.pdf). Maybe that’s because it was added by cutting out part of one of the unfinished trackways and the map was never updated.
My main reason to visit is to compare ~2010 era photos that show the unused trackbeds, and compare it to what is now there – it’s hard to tell whether they were covered over to increase the amount of pedestrian space, or still there but just hiding behind a higher wall.
I think it’s more likely that they were just covered over. Aside from the staircase, there are some locked doors in the new walls (if I remember correctly).
If you end up going, you might also be able to tell how old some things are by the coloration of the wall tiles. The original tiles are slightly dimmer than some newer ones.
From the 2011 “abandonment” post, if you haven’t visited them yet you could also go to Hung Ling station, since it’s the only extant closed railway station, as well as the old KCR alignment near Pak Shek Kok.
There are also some stub ends and large empty spaces around the sides of Kam Sheung Road station for the Northern Link, as well as some reserved patches of land slightly further north, and there are large square slots on the inside the walls of Wong Chuk Hang station (directly above the existing tracks) for the South Island Line (West).
How’d I managed to miss that as well?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sha_Tau_Kok_Railway
Oh, and there are a few hideous fifth-generation Light Rail vehicles now. I don’t know if they’re operational yet. (https://www.mtr.com.hk/archive/corporate/en/press_release/PR-18-110-E.pdf)
Thanks – I didn’t even realise they had even been ordered – I’ll have to keep an eye out for them!
You have a wife and a child. Can you fit everything in and still please them?
My son is easy – I’ve been talking up the trip for months and he has a list of trains and trams to ride – only tricky bit is his short attention span.
My wife is happy on holiday as long as we get to eat good food, and she doesn’t have to stand around forever while I wait for a train to come!