Tai Koo () is a station on the of the

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 city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

MTR system. The station is located in

Kornhill Kornhill and Kornhill Gardens are apartment buildings on the northern slope of Mount Parker (Hong Kong), Mount Parker, in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Kornhill is a private housing estate and Kornhill Gardens is a Private Sect ...

Quarry Bay Quarry Bay is an area beneath Mount Parker in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. The western portion of the area was also formerly known as Lai Chi (). Traditionally an industrial and residential area, the number of commer ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, 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/km ...

and serves the area including

Kornhill Gardens Kornhill and Kornhill Gardens are apartment buildings on the northern slope of Mount Parker, in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Kornhill is a private housing estate and Kornhill Gardens is a Private Sector Participation Scheme ...

and

Taikoo Shing Taikoo Shing or Tai Koo Shing (), is a private residential development in Quarry Bay, in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is a part of Swire's property business, along with Taikoo Place, the adjacent Cityplaza retail and offic ...

. Tai Koo has a unique crimson livery and is one of the busiest stations in the system. The station was named for

, the large-scale residential development built on the former site of

Taikoo Dockyard Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company () was a dockyard in what is now Taikoo Shing, MTR Tai Koo station and part of Taikoo Place of Quarry Bay on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. History The idea that John Swire and Sons should have their ...

, a

Swire Swire Group () is a Hong Kong- and London-based British conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire's operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia ...

company, "Taikoo" being the Romanisation of the latter's Chinese name.

History

Excavation of the station cavern was completed in October 1983. The Island line opening ceremony was held in this station in May 1985 and was officiated by then-MTR chairman

Sir Wilfrid Newton Sir Charles Wilfrid Newton, CBE (11 December 1928 – 28 November 2012) was managing director of Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC) in the 1980s and London Regional Transport in the 1990s. History Charles Wilfrid Newton was bo ...

and

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

Edward Youde Sir Edward Youde (; Cantonese: ''Yau Tak''; 19 June 1924 – 5 December 1986) was a British administrator, diplomat and Sinologist. He served as Governor of Hong Kong between 20 May 1982 and his death on 5 December 1986. Early years Youde ...

, who unveiled the commemorative plaques at the concourse level. The station is built in what was, at the time of its construction, the largest man-made cavern in Asia.

Station layout

Tai Koo adheres to the general layout of most MTR stations. At ground level, there are numerous alphanumerically-named entrances and exits. Platforms 1 and 2 are arranged in the simple island platform layout. Unlike most of the other underground stations on the Island line, Tai Koo does not have separate tubes for each track and platform, but is located in a single tube encompassing both the concourse and the platform. Although it was not built in the

cut and cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

method, it is similar to cut and cover stations in that although there are escalators and stairs in the middle of the platform, it has an open design and the platforms are not separated. Each platform is equipped with

platform screen doors Platform screen doors (PSDs), also known as platform edge doors (PEDs), are used at some train, rapid transit and people mover stations to separate the platform from train tracks, as well as on some bus rapid transit, tram and light rail syste ...

for safety and ventilation reasons.

Entrances/exits

There are five groups of entrances and exits at Tai Koo station labeled A to E. In certain circumstances, there are subsets of these exit groups; these are marked with numbers. *A: at the northeast corner of

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

and Kornhill Road **A1: for

blocks 1-4 **A2: for Kornhill Plaza North *B: opposite the intersection of King's Road and Kornhill Road, for

blocks N-R *C: between Kornhill Road and Hong On Street, for Kornhill blocks A-M and Kornhill Plaza South *D: between King's Road and Taikoo Shing Road **D1: for

Cityplaza Cityplaza () is an office and shopping development, developed by Swire Properties, at 18 Taikoo Shing Road, Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong. It is adjacent to Taikoo Place, another office complex developed by Swire. The six-level shopping c ...

One Island East One Island East is a skyscraper in Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Overview The skyscraper is a commercial office building, rising 298.35 m (979 ft) and has 69 storeys plus two levels of basement. There is ...

and East Hong Kong **D2: for Cityplaza *E: at northeastern corner of Kornhill Gardens at King's Road **E1: for Cityplaza **E2: for Kornhill Gardens blocks 5-6 **E3: for Kornhill Gardens blocks 7-10

References

{{Island Line navbox MTR stations on Hong Kong Island Island line (MTR) Quarry Bay Railway stations in Hong Kong opened in 1985 1985 establishments in Hong Kong