Various track gauges are used in Hong Kong on different railways and railway lines.
Current use Standard gauge In Hong Kong, the ex-KCR East Rail line, the Tuen Ma line (combination of the 2 former ex-KCR West Rail and Ma On Shan lines), the ex-KCR Light Rail services, use .
Almost-standard gauge The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) lines (apart from the West Island line, Kwun Tong line extension and South Island line) that were not part of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) use the track gauge of , narrower than the standard gauge.Allen, Geoffrey Freeman, Jane's World Railways, 1987–88, Jane's Information Group, 1987 () This gauge is also used on the Bucharest Metro in Romania. It was formerly used by Nuremberg tramway before regauging to standard gange.
Narrow gauge Hong Kong Tramways, which has been operating tram service on northern Hong Kong Island since 1904, uses a narrow gauge of .
Rail gauge table Rail gauge Rail Length (km) Operator Service period Sha Tau Kok Railway 11.67 KCR Corporation 1912–1928 Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad 1.5 Hong Kong Disneyland 2005 – present Hong Kong Tramways 30 Hong Kong Tramways, Limited 1904 – present Kwun Tong line 18.4 MTR Corporation 1979 – present Tsuen Wan line 16 MTR Corporation 1982 – present Island line 16.3 MTR Corporation 1985 – present Tung Chung line 31.1 MTR Corporation 1998 – present Airport Express 35.3 MTR Corporation 1998 – present Tseung Kwan O line 12.3 MTR Corporation 2002 – present Disneyland Resort line 3.8 MTR Corporation 2005 – present East Rail line 41.5 MTR Corporation 1910 – present Light Rail 36.2 MTR Corporation 1988 – present Tuen Ma line 56.193 MTR Corporation 2003 – present South Island line 7.4 MTR Corporation 2016 – present Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link Hong Kong section 26 MTR Corporation 2018 – present Peak Tram 1.365 The Peninsula Hotels 1888 – present
Former narrow gauge
The Kowloon–Canton Railway (now East Rail) was originally partially laid to and gauge during its construction, and the latter was proposed to be its gauge since the tunnel could only accommodate gauge if the line was to be double track throughout. However it was built to standard gauge and was single track, retaining space at places for later expansion. The now-defunct Sha Tau Kok Railway, built in 1911 and closed in 1928, constructed of the same materials used for constructing the main line, was gauge. The famous Hong Kong Tramways are gauge. The MTR uses a gauge of , 3 mm narrower than the standard gauge. Originally it was to be standard gauge but when the link between the KCR and MTR at Kowloon Tong fell into disuse due to the difference in the choice of voltage for their respective electrification plans, the latter favoured a narrower gauge for technical reasons. This has proven to be an impediment of the proposed merger between the two systems.
The haematite mine at Ma On Shan used an electric internal railway network of
The Kowloon Godowns in Tsim Sha Tsui, before redevelopment in the 1970s, also had an extensive network of gauge tracks using tiny hand-pushed 2-axle trucks. Similar systems existed elsewhere in Hong Kong. Railways believed to be metre gauge existed in Taikoo Dockyards and Whampoa Dockyards, though standard gauge is more probable for the latter, since it was connected to the main line network after 1937. A cement works in To Kwa Wan, north of the Whampoa dockyards, used a small internal narrow gauge system with jubilee track (prefabricated panels) and wagons, but apart from a few aerial photographs available at the Lands Department Mapping Office, there is little available information about this system.
During the reclamation of Kowloon Bay for the construction of the Kai Tak estates, "jubilee" track and steam locomotives were used to convey spoil. This area became the Kai Tak Airport which has now been demolished.
See also Bucharest Metro, which also uses gauge.
References