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1. Ticket fears as Skyrail counts down to opening

2. Tamar HQ is people's project, says Tsang

1. Ticket fears as Skyrail counts down to opening
Wendy Leung, The Standard 26 May 2006

With a lavish ceremony, Skyrail-ITM, operator of the Tung Chung cable car, has kicked off its 30-day countdown to the official opening.

But how individuals can purchase tickets for the new tourist attraction is not totally clear.

Skyrail managing director Bill Calderwood said Thursday the first cable car connecting Tung Chung and Ngong Ping, the site of Lantau's giant Buddha statue, will run at 10am on June 24, departing from both terminals.

"We expect the public will come early," Calderwood said.

Visitors can buy tickets from major travel agents such as Hong Thai Travel and Wing On Travel starting from June 2, the cable car terminals at Tung Chung and Ngong Ping from the opening date, selected MTR stations from July 1 and on the Internet, he said.

But the company did not specify which MTR stations will sell tickets, nor the date that online bookings at its Web site will start.

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong legislator Lau Kong-wah said further details about ticketing should be announced as soon as possible.

"After the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland and the Wetland Park , we know that local and overseas tourists are eager to try our new attractions," said Lau, adding he hoped Skyrail had noted the Lunar New Year ticketing problems at Disneyland .

Calderwood said the company has crowd management contingency plans and that trial runs will start June 8.

He was confident the cable car, along with the other attractions at Ngong Ping 360 such as Walking with Buddha, Monkey's Tale Theater and the Ngong Ping Tea House, will be a local and overseas family destination.

Lau hoped Skyrail is fully prepared for the opening: "Tourists from overseas want to plan their trips earlier, especially with the summer holidays approaching, and we still don't know when and how to book tickets online."

He added: "The trial runs shouldn't be too close to the opening day, as they will need time for adjustments and improvements."

DAB colleague Chan Kam-lam echoed Lam's concerns: "Is [the lack of information] because the company is not well prepared? And it has to announce early if the tickets are sold out."

He urged Skyrail "not to repeat the mistakes made by Disneyland . Otherwise it will damage the reputation of Hong Kong tourism."

Skyrail operates similar cable cars at Sydney 's Taronga Zoo and the Rainforest Cableway in Queensland .

The cable car is expected to carry 15,000 passengers on its first day, and between 50,000 and 80,000 passengers in the first week after opening. It is also forecast to attract 1.5 million visitors a year.

Round-trip tickets are HK$88 for adults and HK$45 for children. Single trips are HK$58 for adults and HK$28 for children during non-holidays.

2. Tamar HQ is people's project, says Tsang
JIMMY CHEUNG and BLOOMBERG . SCMP 26 May 2006

Donald Tsang: insistent

The plan for a new government headquarters at Tamar is a community project, the chief executive insisted yesterday, and claimed 70 per cent of Hongkongers supported it.

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said the minority opposed to the $5.1 billion plan for the 4.2-hectare harbourfront site in Admiralty had blown the project out of all proportion, and insisted: "The government must deliver it."

One critic challenged his assertion that 70 per cent supported the plan, 20 per cent opposed it and 10 per cent could not care less. Mr Tsang did not back up the figures, but last night the government explained they were "a summarised description of internal [opinion] polls, meetings with different sectors, including [government think-tank] the Central Policy Unit, focus groups, and the views of callers when officials appeared on [media] public affairs programmes".

A spokesman would not disclose the questions government pollsters asked.

Mr Tsang, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, said: "It's not my project. It's a community project ... We need to be together in one place as most other effective modern governments are. So we need a new office. Where should it be? Community consensus is [to] `go to Tamar'."

He said building at Tamar made good economic sense, and cited problems with renovating the 50-year-old Central Government Headquarters in Lower Albert Road, such as installing a broadband internet network.

"We'll still have a lot of voices of people who are not happy with it. That is a fact of life in Hong Kong ."

The Tamar plan was shelved indefinitely in 2003 on budgetary grounds. Mr Tsang revived the idea - on his own initiative, a witness said - in a meeting with engineering sector representatives while running for office last year.

"He mentioned the project in response to our call for speeding up public works to create more job opportunities," architecture and planning legislator Patrick Lau Sau-shing said at the time.

Mr Tsang's tough talking came a day after he shunned lawmakers' request for a meeting before the government seeks funding approval for the Tamar plan from the Legislative Council next month.

Civic Party legislator Ronny Tong Ka-wah criticised Mr Tsang for citing figures of unknown origin in an attempt to bulldoze through his ideas.

"I believe you could get very different results if you asked the question in other ways," he said.

"We are talking about spending $5.2 billion ... We are talking about the last plot of land in Central. It could be reserved as a public park."

He urged Mr Tsang to continue listening to the plan's opponents.