The Western Rail will start running near year-end. I am still unconvinced that it is a good idea. (The Eastern Rail is a worse idea, but that’s entirely another story.) The problem is, the government will try to protect the revenue of the Western Rail but restricting the available choices of forms of transportation in the area. Some drastic changes have been proposed for the Light Railway. Apparently some lines going from Tuen Mun to Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long will be closed, and most lines will only serve areas close to Western Rail stations. This is very bad news, ‘cos it means that going from Tuen Mun to Tin Shui Wai or Yuen Long could involve up to three different trains in some cases, instead of just one or two trains as now.
There are also proposals to can some of the important bus lines, to force everybody to go onto the Western Rail. I am worried that my favourite bus line the 962 might be sacraficed. It would make life very difficult for me and the Lady, and many other folks who work in the Central. At present we catch a 962 (HK$18.2) right outside, and get into Central in about 40 minutes. If the 962 is canned, we would have to take a minibus (HK$4) to the Western Rail station, take a train to Sham Shui Po (~HK$10), and then change to the MTR to go to Central (~HK$10). It is going to take longer (travel time plus waiting time), cost more, and we would be deprived of the uninterrupted nap on the bus. It would suck.
The local Democratic Party organized a demonstration against the LRT reorganization this morning. ~300 folks joined, and it went onto the local news. I also shot some footages. I am not too sure how useful this demonstration is, and have the impression that folks just don’t care. This reminds me of Auther Dent’s situation: his house was about to be demolised one morning when he woke up and he couldn’t do anything about it, for the local council was planning to build a new road over his house, and the plan was put up on the local council office for consultation, yet Auther never bothered to check. The Tuen Mun folks do not know much about the proposal changes in the public transport, and certainly have no idea how it would affect them. This is very disturbing.