Kennedy Town is the western
terminus of the . The station serves the
Kennedy Town area on the northwestern end of
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
.
History
Planning
When the station first appeared in ''Hong Kong Mass Transit: Further Studies'' in 1970, it was simply known as Kennedy (). It was to be built as part of the Island line in the 1980s, but construction of the line did not commence westwards beyond , citing inadequate passengers and technical difficulties by contractors.
Under the latest proposal as of June 2005, Kennedy Town would be served by West Island line as an extension of the Island line, a
heavy rail
Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas:
Rapid transit
A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid accelerat ...
system, instead of being served by a medium capacity rail shared by commuters from
Southern District, after pressure from local community groups.
Construction
The station was designed by
TFP Farrells
Farrells is an architecture and urban design firm founded by British architect-planner Terry Farrell with offices in London, Manchester, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The firm has won numerous awards for their characteristic mixed-use schemes, tr ...
. The contract to construct the station and overrun tunnel was awarded to
Gammon Construction
Gammon Construction Limited is a Hong Kong construction and engineering contractor headquartered in Kwun Tong, Hong Kong. In addition to local construction projects, it also involved in construction and engineering various projects in China ...
(half owned by
Balfour Beatty) for HK$1.34 billion.
The overrun tunnel is 650 metres in length.
[ Construction commenced in 2010 and was completed in 2014. Demolition of the swimming pool, which occupied the bulk of the station site, was underway by 2011. The re-provisioning contract for the new Kennedy Town Swimming Pool was awarded to Paul Y. Construction Company Ltd in July 2009 and was finished in 2011 near the Kennedy Town seafront.
Kennedy Town station opened on 28 December 2014.]
Station layout
The station is located under the site of the previous Kennedy Town Swimming Pool
The Kennedy Town Swimming Pool () is a public swimming complex in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. There have been two pools of this name. The first iteration opened in 1974 while the current iteration opened in 2011.
First generation
Construction of ...
located on Smithfield. There is a public transport interchange at the ground level of the station.
West of the station, the two tracks merge into one track and there is a siding for Island line trains to change direction.
Entrances/exits
*A : Smithfield (Minibus terminus)
*B : Rock Hill Street, North Street
*C: Forbes Street, Smithfield, Kennedy Town Playground
Community facilities
File:HK_KennedyTownCommunityComplex.JPG, Kennedy Town Community Complex
File:Association_Of_HK_Western_District.jpg, Kennedy Town Kai-Fong Welfare Association
File:堅尼地城泳池.jpg, New Kennedy Town Swimming Pool opened in 2011
References
{{Central and Western District
Kennedy Town
MTR stations on Hong Kong Island
Island line (MTR)
West Island line
Railway stations in Hong Kong opened in 2014