PR086/14 26 September 2014

Kennedy Town Station Preparing for Operational Readiness While HKU Station Enters Systems Testing Phase

The MTR West Island Line project marked a major milestone on 5 September 2014 when the construction team officially handed the keys of Station over to the operations team to conduct pre-opening preparations.

“This is an exciting development as it means the first of West Island Line’s three stations is being prepared for passenger use,” said Mr Lincoln Leong, Acting Chief Executive Officer of MTR Corporation who took media representatives on a tour of the station today (26 September 2014). “However, our projects team is working very hard to overcome the challenges still remaining in the civil works programme at HKU and stations. The programme is very tight and we are keeping a very close eye on the situation.”

HKU Station is the deepest and largest cavern-type station in the MTR network. Difficulty was experienced in the removal of spoils for the 70-metre deep lift shafts excavation. While construction work is in the final stages, HKU Station has just entered the testing and commissioning stage for the railway systems prior to statutory inspections.

At , complicated ground conditions are delaying progress on the construction of entrances B1 and B2.

While the MTR Corporation targets to open West Island Line in December this year, the Corporation had earlier announced a backup plan to not stop at Sai Ying Pun Station if that station is not completed in time. Should the backup plan prove not to be possible, the opening of the whole West Island Line will be postponed to the first quarter of 2015.

With his team having taken possession of Kennedy Town Station, Operations Director of MTR Corporation Dr Jacob Kam said the most important work at hand is to conduct trial operations of trains and stress test the passenger service equipment to ensure smooth operation of the station facilities and systems.

“Every ticket machine has to be tested 4,000 times while every ticket gate will be tested 6,000 times. Altogether, some 330,000 loading and integration tests will have to be conducted on the platform screen doors, entry/exit gates and ticket machines alone. The tests aim to minimise the occurrence of teething problems after the station opens for service,” Dr Kam explained.

At the same time, operations staff are being trained and drilled on overall station management, in particular, familiarising themselves with the processes involved in “Group Station Control”.

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“This mode of operation is used on the , Disneyland Resort Line and Airport Express and has proved to be effective,” said Dr Kam. “Staff at the Kennedy Town Group Station Control Room will be dedicated to overall station management and monitoring the status and operation of the different station equipment. This frees up staff at HKU and Sai Ying Pun stations to patrol the station areas and assist passengers, enhancing overall customer service.”

As at the end of August 2014, the West Island Line project is approximately 96% complete. West Island Line is an extension of MTR Island Line with three new stations which are expected to serve about 230,000 people living and working in Western District, with passengers being able to travel all the way from Kennedy Town to Chai Wan without any interchange.

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Photo caption:

1. This month, the keys of Kennedy Town Station have been handed over to the MTR operations team to conduct pre-opening preparations. This is the first station in the West Island Line project to be prepared for passenger use.

2. (From left) Mr Lincoln Leong, Acting Chief Executive Officer of MTR Corporation, Dr Jacob Kam, Operations Director and Dr Philco Wong, Projects Director – Designate introduce Blooming Bud, the largest community artwork in the MTR network. The artwork will be permanently displayed in the Kennedy Town Station concourse.

3. Station staff at the Group Station Control Room in Kennedy Town Station will be dedicated to performing station control duties and monitoring the operations of all three WIL stations, maintaining real time communication with staff in station areas at Sai Ying Pun, HKU and Kennedy Town through various channels.