The

Tsuen Wan line The Tsuen Wan line is one of the eleven lines of the metro network in Hong Kong's MTR. It is indicated in red on the MTR map. There are 16 stations on the line. The southern terminus is Central station on Hong Kong Island and the no ...

of Hong Kong's

Mass Transit Railway The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...

(MTR) system includes a dual-tracked, reinforced concrete,

immersed tube An immersed tube (or immersed tunnel) is a kind of undersea tunnel composed of segments, constructed elsewhere and floated to the tunnel site to be sunk into place and then linked together. They are commonly used for road and rail crossings of ...

railway tunnel across

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrumental in ...

, connecting Hong Kong Island to Kowloon.

History

First proposed as early as 1967 in a study commissioned by the Hong Kong government in 1966,''Rail Mass Transit for Developing Countries: Proceedings of the Conference Organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers, and Held in London on 9–10 October 1989''
, Thomas Telford, 1990, p. 141 it was the first

railway tunnel Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

to cross the Victoria Harbour and also the first

subsea Subsea technology involves fully submerged ocean equipment, operations, or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term ''subsea'' is frequently used in connection with oceanography, marin ...

railway tunnel in the territory. It was the second

fixed crossing A fixed link or fixed crossing is a persistent, unbroken road or rail connection across water that uses some combination of bridges, tunnels, and causeways and does not involve intermittent connections such as drawbridges or ferries. A bridge–tu ...

to cross the harbour, after the vehicular Cross Harbour Tunnel opened in 1972. The stations at the south and north ends of the tunnel are, respectively,

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

and

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsi ...

. Its construction by

Kumagai Gumi is a Japanese construction company founded in Fukui, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The company still has registered headquarters in Fukui, but the actual head office is located in Shinjuku, Tokyo. History Santaro Kumagai, the company's founder, beg ...

commenced in 1976. The 14 tunnel segments, each 100 metres long, were cast in a basin in Chai Wan. The tunnel was designed by Per Hall Consultants under the supervision of Freeman Fox and Partners. A specially designed barge, constructed for Kumagai Gumi by

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

, arrived in Hong Kong in February 1977 to help form the seabed alignment and thereafter lay the tunnel segments into place. The structural completion of the tunnel was marked on 26 March 1979 by a celebratory walk-through and breaking-open of a barrel of

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

. Upon its opening in 1980, the tunnel was part of the Modified Initial System of the territory's MTR. The full Modified Initial System was opened on 12 February 1980 by Princess Alexandra. She also rode the inaugural train through the immersed tube beneath

to Chater station, which was renamed Central station in 1985. In 1982 the tunnel became part of the network's

References

1980 establishments in Hong Kong Admiralty, Hong Kong Immersed tube tunnels in Hong Kong Railway tunnels in Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui Undersea tunnels in Asia Victoria Harbour {{Victoria Harbour

History

See also

References