Topic summary
East Rail line
The East Rail line (Chinese: 東鐵綫) (formerly known as KCR British Section from 1 October 1910 to 1996, then KCR East Rail until 2 December 2007) is one of the ten lines that form MTR, the mass transit system in Hong Kong. The railway line begins at Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau (both of which are boundary crossing points into Shenzhen, and are on tracks that join in the north at Sheung Shui) and ends at Admiralty station on Hong Kong Island. At approximately 46 km (29 mi), the line (including the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line) is the second-longest line within the network, behind the Tuen Ma line.
The line connects the new towns of Fanling–Sheung Shui, Tai Po and Sha Tin in eastern New Territories with urban Kowloon and the central business district. It is also the city of Hong Kong's only railway line that connects to land-based border checkpoints with Mainland China. The line is generally double-tracked and electrified, except for certain goods sheds. All of the stations on the line except Admiralty, Exhibition Centre and Hung Hom are at-grade or elevated. As of 2018, the line carried around 1 million passenger trips per day.
The line was the first heavy rail line in Hong Kong; it opened in 1910 as the Kowloon–Canton Railway (British Section). Prior to the MTR–KCR merger in 2007, the line (then known as KCR East Rail) formed part of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) network and was managed by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC). On 2 December 2007, the line was taken over by MTR Corporation (MTRC) and was given its current name. KCRC continues to own the line and its infrastructure while leasing its operations to MTRC.
The same railway was used for intercity passenger and freight services crossing the boundary into Mainland China. Freight services on the line ceased in 2009, while the intercity passenger services were suspended in early 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, with no plans to resume service despite border reopenings.