The Kwun Tong line () is a rapid transit line of the MTR network in Hong Kong. Starting at Whampoa in Hung Hom and ending at Tiu Keng Leng in Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung, the route has 17 stations and takes 35 minutes to complete.
As part of a project to reduce congestion at Quarry Bay, the Kwun Tong line was briefly extended to North Point on 27 September 2001. This station did not last as the terminus for long, as the newly built Tseung Kwan O line would take over the cross-harbour portion of the route in 2002. On 18 August 2002, The Kwun Tong line was extended to Tiu Keng Leng, its present eastern terminus, coinciding with the opening of the Tseung Kwan O line.
Although not in regular service, the original tunnel linking the Kwun Tong line to the Eastern Harbour Crossing continues to be maintained and can be utilised in the event of a disruption on the Tseung Kwan O line. Such an incident occurred on 16 December 2013, when a train on the Tseung Kwan O line broke down, halting train services on the entire line for several hours. To prevent 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.
{| border="0"
|thumb|"Modified Initial System", an early form of Kwun Tong line between 1979–80|alt=|leftthumb|400px|Realignment of Kwun Tong line upon the inauguration of [[Tseung Kwan O line.]]
|}
Western extension
As part of its bid for Sha Tin to Central Link (SCL) in the early 2000s, the MTR Corporation proposed an extension of the Kwun Tong line to serve the Whampoa Garden area, with an interchange at Ho Man Tin to an extended Ma On Shan line, which would provide an alternate route to the Tsuen Wan line across Victoria Harbour to Central South station. Its competitor, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, suggested constructing an Automated People Mover between Hung Hom and Whampoa instead.
After the MTR–KCR merger in 2007, the Hong Kong government appointed the MTRC to construct the SCL between Tai Wai and Hung Hom according to the KCRC's modified proposal, which would see the Ma On Shan and West Rail lines merged to form the Tuen Ma line, while also extending the Kwun Tong line to Whampoa as per the MTRC's own proposal. The benefits would be a better transfer arrangement at Ho Man Tin and other SCL interchange stations for services to the northeastern and northwestern New Territories. Passengers would be able to change to the North-South corridor at Hung Hom for cross-harbour services, which would terminate at Admiralty after Central South station was removed from the final plan.
The Kwun Tong line extension (abbreviated KTE; ) from Yau Ma Tei to Whampoa via Ho Man Tin began construction on 25 July 2011 and opened for service on 23 October 2016. Because of capacity limitations due to the single platform at Whampoa, half of all Whampoa-bound trains terminate at Ho Man Tin during peak hours; all trains terminate at Whampoa during off-peak hours.
A further extension of the Kwun Tong line to Hong Kong Island was also proposed in RDS-2000 to constitute the fifth harbour crossing.
Rolling stock
{|border=0 style="border:1px solid #999;background-color:white;text-align:left;font-size:90%"
|-align=center bgcolor=#
!colspan="6"|MTR Kwun Tong line Rolling stock
|-align=center bgcolor=#cccccc
!Model!!Manufactured!!Time of manufacturing!!Sets!!Assembly!!Notes
|-
|M-Train||Metro-Cammell||1977–1994||14||A-C+D+B-C+D+C-A|| Limited use only.<br/> 7 sets are used on the Tseung Kwan O Line while 13 were transferred to the Island Line.
|-
|-bgcolor=#EFEFEF
|C-Train||CNR Changchun||2010-2013||22||rowspan=2|A-C-B+B-C+B-C-A||
|-
|Q-Train||CRRC Qingdao Sifang||2017–present||13||
|-
|-align=center bgcolor=#
!colspan="6"|MTR Kwun Tong line Former rolling stock
|-align=center bgcolor=#cccccc
!Model!!Manufactured!!Time in operation!!Sets!!Assembly!!Notes
|-
|K-Train||Hyundai Rotem and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries||26/04/2002–04/2010||13||A-C-B+B-C+B-C-A|| Now used on Tseung Kwan O line
|-
|}
Route description
The Kwun Tong line is mostly underground and runs generally east-west. It starts at Whampoa station and heads northwest, with an interchange to the Tuen Ma line at Ho Man Tin. It curves to the southwest and then north to meet the Tsuen Wan line at Yau Ma Tei, with the Tsuen Wan line platforms above the Kwun Tong Line platforms. At this point, the line runs underneath Nathan Road alongside the Tsuen Wan line, with stations at Mong Kok and Prince Edward providing cross-platform interchanges.
The Kwun Tong line then splits from the Tsuen Wan line and turns to the east after Shek Kip Mei. At Kowloon Tong, there is an important, widely used interchange with the suburban East Rail line. Continuing eastwards through Wong Tai Sin, the line interchanges with the Tuen Ma line again at Diamond Hill, after which it turns south and emerges above ground after Choi Hung station. It then runs southeast 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 (although the line is completely covered at this point), where it meets with the Tseung Kwan O line. Both the Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O lines pass beneath the Tseung Kwan O cemetery in tunnel before entering Tseung Kwan O in an northeasterly direction and eventually terminating at Tiu Keng Leng station. Yau Tong and Tiu Keng Leng stations provide cross-platform interchanges in the same manner as Mong Kok and Prince Edward. Expansions for the Kwun Tong line to the east have been made impossible due to the building structure of Tseung Kwan O station, just mere meters ahead from the end of the Kwun Tong line tunnels.
Stations
This is a list of the stations on the Kwun Tong line.
List
{| class="wikitable" style="color: black; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%"
! rowspan="2" | Livery
! colspan="2" | Station Name
! rowspan="2" |Length
(km)
! rowspan="2" | Images
! rowspan="2" | Interchange;<br /><small>Adjacent transportation</small>
! rowspan="2" | Opening
! rowspan="2" | District
|-
!English
!Chinese
|- bgcolor=#
| colspan="9" style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| style="background-color: #AECFF0;" |
|
|
|0.0
| 100x100px
|
| rowspan="2" |23 October 2016;<br />
| rowspan="2" |Kowloon City
|-
| style="background-color: #9ACD32;" |
|
|
|0.8
| 100x100px
|
|-
| style="background-color: #CCCCCC;" |
|
|
|2.6
| 100px
| towards Tsuen Wan (Whampoa Direction)
| 22 December 1979;<br />
| rowspan="3" |Yau Tsim Mong
|-
| style="background-color: #AA0000;" |
|
|
|3.4
| 100px
| towards Central station (Tiu Keng Leng Direction)
| 31 December 1979;<br />
|-
| style="background-color: #8B668B;" |
|
|
|4.0
| 100px
| towards Tsuen Wan (Whampoa Direction)
| 10 May 1982;<br />
|-
| style="background-color: #669933;" |
|
|
|4.8
| 100px
|
| rowspan="9" |1 October 1979;<br />
| Sham Shui Po
|-
| style="background-color: #0088DD;" |
|
|
|6.1
| 100x100px
|
| Kowloon City
|-
| style="background-color: #669933;" |
|
|
|7.0
| 100px
| rowspan="2"
| rowspan="4" |Wong Tai Sin
|-
| style="background-color: #FFFF00;" |
|
|
|8.0
| 100px
|-
| style="background-color: #000000;" |
|
|
|8.8
| 100px
| <br> <small>(proposed)</small>
|-
| style="background-color: #406080; background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #700000, #700000, #BC6020, #BC6020, #D8C860, #D8C860, #4C6C40, #4C6C40, #4060A0, #4060A0, #444054, #444054, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080, #406080 (though the main colour is #406080));" |
|
|
|9.7
| 100px
| rowspan="5"
|-
| style="background-color: #DD2200;" |
|
|
|11.2
| 100px
| rowspan="5" |Kwun Tong
|-
| style="background-color: #32CD32;" |
|
|
|12.3
| 100px
|-
| style="background-color: #FFFFFF;" |
|
|
|13.2
| 100px
|-
| style="background-color: #0000AA;" |
|
|
|14.1
| 100px
| 1 October 1989;<br />
|-
| style="background-color: #FFF000;" |
|
|
|15.2
| 100px
| towards North Point
| 4 August 2002;<br />
|-
| style="background-color: #9ACD32;" |
|
|
|17.3
| 100px
| towards Po Lam or LOHAS Park
| 18 August 2002;<br />
| Sai Kung
|-bgcolor = #
|colspan = "7"|
|}
Notes
See also
- East Rail line
- Tseung Kwan O line
- Tsuen Wan line
References
External links
- Proposed extension to Ho Man Tin and Whampoa Garden (Adobe Systems Acrobat pdf format)