Hong Kong-Guangzhou HSL pushed back to 2017

A high-speed railway linking Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong will now be open in 2017, delaying the project by another year.

In April, MTR announced that tunnelling works had been put on hold after flooding caused substantial damage to one of the project’s tunnel boring machines (TBM).

An independent committee has now been appointed to look at how the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Link project can be delivered in a “timely and transparent manner”.

Dr Raymond Ch’ien, chairman of MTR Corporation, said: “The Express Rail Link is an important project for Hong Kong and the Board regrets that its opening will be postponed to 2017.

“Having heard the many opinions and views expressed recently in the community, board members feel there is a need to conduct a more detailed assessment of the causes of the delay, and why the impacts on the opening date and budget had not been clearly highlighted to the board.

“Our aim is to obtain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the issues involved so that we can determine how the Board can better monitor the project going forward.”

A report back to the board is expected by July.




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