Tuen Ma Line

## **Tuen Ma Line** **屯馬綫**

Tuen Ma Line Topographical Route Map

The **Tuen Ma Line** is one of the MTR's heavy rail lines, connecting Tuen Mun and Wu Kai Sha and spanning 9 administrative districts - Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing (without stopping but passes through the district), Sham Shui Po, Yau Tsim Mong, Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin and Sha Tin, with a total length of about 56 kilometres, a total of 27 stations along the route. Regarding the number of stations and length, it is the highest of all railway lines in Hong Kong; this line has two dispatching depots and special train stabling sidings, which is the only route among the heavy railway lines that has this train dispatching arrangement.

The Tuen Ma Line, known as the "East-West Corridor" in planning, consists of the existing West Rail Line (opened to traffic in 2003) and the Ma On Shan Line (opened to traffic in 2004, renamed **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1** in 2020) and the newly built Sha Tin to Central Link (Tai Wai to Hung Hom Section). 3 parts are merged to form a strategic railway corridor linking the New Territories East and the New Territories West through the Kowloon Peninsula. With the opening of a section of railway between Kai Tak and Hung Hom on June 27, 2021, the **Tuen Ma Line** fully opens and officially becomes one of the railway lines in the MTR network.

On the route map, the Tuen Ma Line follows its predecessor **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1**, using brown as the representative colour, and is named after its origin and end points are located in Tuen Mun and Ma On Shan new towns respectively. This line is also the only heavy railway line that retains the door layout of the former Kowloon-Canton Railway after the entire East Rail Line was converted to 9 cars.

## History

The history of the components of each forming part can be found in the relevant articles below.

* 20 December 2003:  **KCR West Rail** opened to service.
* 24 October 2004:  **KCR East Rail** Tsim Sha Tsui Branch Line from Hung Hom to East Tsim Sha Tsui opened to service.
* 21 December 2004:  **Ma On Shan Rail** opened to service.
* 2 December 2007: Following the Rail Merger,  **KCR West Rail** and  **Ma On Shan Rail** was renamed West Rail Line and Ma On Shan Line respectively.
* 16 August 2009: The Kowloon Southern Link as an extension of West Rail Line opened to service; the Template:Tsim Sha Tsui Branch Line from East Tsim Sha Tsui to Hung Hom was shifted to West Rail Line.
* 14 February 2020: Ma On Shan Line extended to Kai Tak and renamed **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1**.
* 27 June 2021: Sha Tin to Central Link (Kai Tak to Hung Hom) commenced service, linking both West Rail Line and **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1** and merged into **Tuen Ma Line**.

### Sha Tin to Central Link (Tai Wai to Hung Hom Section)

As early as the 1970s, the Hong Kong authorities had planned a railway line south of Diamond Hill through Kowloon City, which was called the Template:East Kowloon Line (1970s planning) at that time, but the construction was postponed for various reasons. Until the government issued the "Railway Development Strategy 2000" in 2000, the proposal to build the Shatin to Central Link was emerged.

After years of planning process, on 27 March 2012, the Chief Executive in Council authorized a 17-kilometre-long Shatin-Central Link railway project by the *Railway Ordinance*. Construction on Tai Wai to Hung Hom Section started on 22 June 2012, extending the Ma On Shan Line from Tai Wai to Hung Hom to connect with the West Rail Line to form the new **Tuen Ma Line** to provide more direct and convenient railway services. The 56-kilometre **Tuen Ma Line** will then become the longest railway line in Hong Kong.

### **Tuen Ma Line**

As early as 4 April 2018, it was revealed that this line was named "Tuen Ma Line". Until 25 May the MTR officially announced the name of the line. However, the name sign outside the door of an environmental control system on the L3 floor of Ho Man Tin Station used to show "East-West Line" to refer to the Tuen Ma Line. This word has been deleted, but the English abbreviation "EWL" has not been removed.

The Tai Wai to Hung Hom Section of the SCL was originally scheduled to open in 2015, but it was first delayed to 2018, and then postponed to mid-2019 due to the discovery of historic sites at Sung Wong Toi Station, and later due to the structure of Hung Hom Station problem and postponed.

To allow the public to use the newly built railway facilities as soon as possible, the Government believes that it is necessary to partially open the "Tai Wai to Hung Hom Section". After several months of research by the MTR Corporation, and after fully considering safety and other operational feasibility factors, the MTR Corporation proposed and the Government agreed to start using three new stations: Hin Keng Station, the extension part of Diamond Hill Station and Kai Tak Station.

The Secretary for Transport and Housing, Frank Chan, announced on 18 July 2019 that three new MTR stations, Hin Keng, Diamond Hill and Kai Tak, will be opened in the first quarter of 2020. The railway is officially known as **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1** to facilitate the use of the new railway service by Hin Keng and Kai Tak residents, and the trial operation began on 28 October 2019.

On 11 February 2020, MTR and KCRC signed a supplementary service operating rights agreement for the **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1**, which regulates the operational arrangements for Phase 1 of the Tuen Ma Line after its opening to traffic for two years. To enable MTR Corporation Limited to earn commercial returns, KCRC pays MTR a fixed amount each year, with a total value of HK$465 million during the validity period of the operating rights.

The Tai Wai to Kai Tak section of **Tuen Ma Line Phase 1** opened for service on 14 February 2020. On that day, MTR arranged a special first train (Train set: D397/D398) to depart from Kai Tak Station to Wu Kai Sha Station at 5:45 am as the first special departure; as for trains from Wu Kai Sha to Kai Tak, it departed at the normal time of 5:38 am (Train set: D413/D414). At the same time, Kai Tak Station Exit D was opened at 5:20am for revenue service.

As for the remaining sections, they were opened on June 27, 2021, which means that the **Tuen Ma Line**, which has been under construction for more than 9 years, is officially opened to revenue service.

## Fare

This route belongs to the Urban Lines and belongs to the same gate area as the other Urban Lines, and adopts a comprehensive fare system.

### Octopus Interchange Scheme

* Children under the age of 12, seniors aged 65 or above, and passengers using personal Octopus cards with "Student Status", "Persons with Disabilities Status" or JoyYou Cards for seniors aged 60 to 64 can enjoy discounted fares.

Passengers can transfer between urban lines without going through a gate, except for transfers between Tsim Sha Tsui and East Tsim Sha Tsui stations.
Passengers who use the same Octopus to transfer via Tsim Sha Tsui Station within 30 minutes will receive a transfer discount. The total Octopus fare is equivalent to the fare from the starting station to the final station.
If passengers use the same MTR City Saver to transfer via Tsim Sha Tsui Station within 30 minutes, only one journey will be deducted in total.
Passengers using one-way tickets who need to transfer at Tsim Sha Tsui Station must purchase a ticket to Tsim Sha Tsui Station first, and then buy another one-way ticket to continue the journey after exiting the gate.
Interchange at Tsim Sha Tsui Station with the QR code of the ticket is also counted as two journeys.
Senior citizens aged 65 or above using Senior Citizen Octopus Cards, JoyYou Card or Personalised Octopus Card, seniors aged 60 to 64 using JoyYou Card, and eligible persons with disabilities using Personalised Octopus Card with "Person with Disability Status" can enjoy each journey Flat rate discount of $2.0, except that the discount is not applicable to the East Rail Line first-class surcharge. If the original discounted fare is less than $2.0, the beneficiary only needs to pay the original discounted fare; and the original full-fare ticket for the elderly aged 60 to 64 using the JoyYou Card is less than $2.0, the beneficiary only needs to pay the original full-fare.
* Passengers can use MTR City Saver to take this route between Diamond Hill and Tsuen Wan West.
* Passengers holding Sheung Shui/Wu Kai Sha - East Tsim Sha Tsui Monthly Pass Enhanced Edition can take this route for free between Wu Kai Sha and East Tsim Sha Tsui
* Passengers holding Tuen Mun-Hung Hom Monthly Pass Enhanced Edition can take the section between Hung Hom and Tuen Mun for free.
* Passengers holding Tuen Mun-Nam Cheong Monthly Pass Enhanced Version and Tuen Mun-Nam Cheong Full Day Pass can take this route between Nam Cheong to Tuen Mun.

### Light Rail Interchange

Passengers have a free trip on Light Rail when exiting from any station that allows transfer between the systems, regardless of route chosen with an Octopus card; you must tap into the Light Rail system within 30 minutes of tapping out of the Tuen Ma Line station. This however works for trips under a certain distance when tapping out of the Light Rail system.

### MTR Bus Interchange

Passengers are not charged an extra fare when transferring to MTR Bus routes from Tuen Ma Line stations when using the same Octopus card as the Tuen Ma Line trip within a certain time limit.

### Monthly Passes

The Tuen Mun - Hung Hom Monthly Pass Extra covers all stations on the western section of the line, alongside Light Rail and MTR Bus, while the one between Nam Cheong and Tuen Mun only covers said stations alongside Light Rail and MTR Bus. The Sheung Shui/Wu Kai Sha - East Tsim Sha Tsui Monthly Pass covers all stations on the eastern section of the line, including the East Rail Line between Sheung Shui and Hung Hom. Monthly passes are only available on personalized Octopus cards.

### Day Pass

The original West Rail Line segment (Tuen Mun - Nam Cheong) is covered by a day pass which includes travel between said stations, Light Rail and MTR Bus. Passengers wanting to travel further than these stations (on the Kowloon end) or another MTR urban line must re-enter the system at Nam Cheong or Mei Foo before continuing their trip if they are using this pass.

Tourist Passes cover all stations in the MTR system except Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau; those using a tourist day/multi-day pass do not need to re-enter to continue their trip.

## Stations

This is a list of all the stations on the Tuen Ma Line. The coloured boxes holding the station names represent the respective colour motif for the station.

### Platform Safety Doors

Platform Screen Doors are installed at all stations between Tuen Mun and Hin Keng, and platform gates are installed at stations between Tai Wai and Wu Kai Sha. The latter stations did not have platform gates until 2016-2017.

### Evacuation Points on Elevated Sections

Sections between Tuen Mun to Kam Sheung Road and Hin Keng to Wu Kai Sha are elevated sections. Emergency stairs and evacuation points are situated within a fixed distance to enable evacuation of passengers back to the ground level during accidents (or to the nearest station if necessary).

## Train Operation

### Frequency

If you want to check the train arrival time information at each station, you can check the real-time train service information through the MTR Mobile app.

#### Special services

Move the cursor to the departure time to view the run number of the special train.

**Provide Real-time train service information on all lines.**

In addition, overflow shuttle buses may also be operated from Nam Cheong to Tuen Mun during Afternoon Peak Hours to alleviate the huge passenger volume in the western section of this line. Listen to announcements for details.

### Train Service Hours

#### First Trains

The first upbound trains depart from Wu Kai Sha, Hung Hom and Kam Sheung Road respectively, while the first downwards trains depart from Tuen Mun, East Tsim Sha Tsui and Tai Wai.

#### Last Train

After the last upbound train to Tuen Mun leaves, 3 trains with Hung Hom as the terminating station will depart. Until 00:14, there will be 4 more trains. The trains end at Tai Wai. After the last train going down to Wu Kai Sha leaves, the next trains will leave with Hung Hom as the terminating station.

## Trains

At present, the **Tuen Ma Line** uses a total of 59 8-car trains, including 42 IKK-Trains and 17 TML C-Trains. The former is owned by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Company (KCRC), who leased them to the MTR after the merger of the two railways; The latter is purchased and owned by MTR. When the remaining 6 IKK-Trains are reorganised, the number of trains line will increase by 6 to 65.

* D397/4XX (Single)- P397/4XX (Single)- M397/4XX (Single)- K397/4XX (Single)- C398/4XX (Double)- M398/4XX (Double)- P398/4XX (Double)- D398/4XX (Double) TML C-Train

### Train Equipment

Dynamic Route Maps (DRM) are above the train doors; there is also a display above the gangway to show the next stop and destination. The announcement information bar is displayed below the line map on the DRM when necessary. Stations that have been already served by the train will be grayed out.

## Operation Agreement

The MTR Corporation has signed four major agreements with the Government and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Company to regulate the operation and service operation rights of the **Tuen Ma Line**. Starting from the opening date of the entire Tuen Ma Line (6th June 2021), the MTR Corporation (MTR) has been granted the right to own and operate the **Tuen Ma Line** for two years.

## Ridership

The **Tuen Ma Line** connects the original West Rail Line and Ma On Shan Line, becoming an important transport link for commuters in Kowloon and for Kowloon commuters travelling to and from the Northwest New Territories and the East New Territories respectively, and diverting the huge passenger volume of the original East Rail Line travelling to and from Tai Wai and Kowloon Tong interchanging to the Kwun Tong Line, so there are always crowds of passengers at all times, and during peak hours, the situation of Sardines even occurs, and some passengers are even unable to board the train, which does not exist during off-peak hours on weekdays and public holidays. The frequency was not increased during off-peak hours on weekdays and holidays due to the commissioning of the entire **Tuen Ma Line** (7-minute headways continued to be maintained, and after the relaxation of the social distance measure during the epidemic, the arrangement was still maintained, and it was only until 20 August 2023 that the frequency was slightly increased to 6-minute headways during some of the holidays, which was the frequency of the West Rail Line during the non-peak hours prior to the epidemic, but it was still less frequent than the 5-minute headways of the Ma On Shan Line during the non-peak hours prior to the epidemic[18]), which has led to a lot of questions about whether or not the two lines should be merged. Many people questioned whether the two lines should actually be merged.

However, due to the very circuitous alignment of this route, few passengers other than those simply joyriding travelled the entire route or used this route to travel between New Territories West and New Territories East. Instead, they have continued to make use of the interchange concessions at the Shing Mun Tunnel BBI stop, or take buses to travel between the two places on KMB routes 43X, 263, 269D, and so on.

During the initial period of commissioning, there were quite a number of passengers who deliberately took the whole journey just for joyriding, and some even chose not to exit the gates in the middle of the journey to take the Tuen Ma Line for a round trip (since there are no drop-off platforms at both stations, they can stay in the train compartment after arriving at the station and wait for the return trip, which is a 75-minute one-way journey, or a 150-minute round trip); and the MTRC had to rarely remind passengers to pay attention to the time of entering the gate to avoid being surcharged.

On 23 February 2022, the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan, replied in writing to a question raised by a LegCo Member, Mr Tony Tse, in relation to the East Rail Line and **Tuen Ma Line**, that after the full commissioning of the Tuen Ma Line on 21 June 2021, about 30% of the southbound passengers of the East Rail Line had switched to use the Tuen Ma Line to travel to Kowloon East, which was higher than the original estimate of about 18%, and this had brought about a significant diversion effect for the southbound traffic of the East Rail Line and eased the traffic congestion along the busiest section of the East Rail Line between Tai Wai and Tuen Ma Line. This has alleviated the congestion along the busiest section of the East Rail Line between Tai Wai and Kowloon Tong in the past .

According to the Finance Committee paper of the Legislative Council, the busiest section of Tuen Ma Line in 2021 was between Tsuen Wan West and Mei Foo, with a loading factor of 61% per square metre of standing capacity of six persons and 86% per square metre of standing capacity of four persons .

According to a paper from the Traffic and Transport Committee of the Kowloon City District Council in March 2023, the occupancy rates of the Tuen Ma Line between To Kwa Wan Station and Kai Tak Station during the morning peak period are about 40% (Tuen Mun-bound) and 20% (Wu Kai Sha-bound) .

## Anecdotes

Even though the complete **Tuen Ma Line** was opened to traffic and the names of West Rail Line and Ma On Shan Line disappeared, many people still used to call them West Rail or Ma On Shan Rail/Ma On Shan Line because the names of the relevant lines had been used for a long time, and some people call the Sha Tin to Central Link the newly built section by MTR.

## Related Articles

* West Rail Line
* Ma On Shan Line

Sha Tin to Central Link

* East Rail Line

## References

1. ↑ [https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202202/23/P2022022300331.htm
LCQ20: Alleviating pressure on carrying capacity of MTR East Rail Line], HKSARG Press Release.
2. ↑ "Special Meetings of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council to Examine the Estimates of Expenditure 2022-23 - Administration's replies to Members initial written questions (Transport)", Reply Serial No. THB(T)022.
3. ↑ "建議及要求港鐵屯馬線增加班次（運輸署回應）" (Proposals and requests for increasing the frequency of MTR Tuen Mun Line (TD's response)), Paper No. 13 from the Traffic and Transport Committee of Kowloon City District Council, March 2022.

## External Links

* VJMedia: "「沙田至中環綫」第一期" ("Shatin to Central Link" Phase 1) (MTR Service Update)
* MTR Corporation Limited: MTR - Tuen Ma Line

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