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1. West Rail is back on track after trial runs

2. KCRC to seek licence for $46b rail link

3. Cathedral wins heritage award

4. Activists to drop fight if harbour appeal lost

1. West Rail is back on track after trial runs
FELIX CHAN, SCMP 8 December 2003

The West Rail will start running in the second half of the month after operational problems were ironed out, KCRC chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun has confirmed.

Mr Tien said six weeks of trial runs had been successfully completed and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation would submit an application today for the new rail link's operational licence.

KCRC officials would have breathed a sigh of relief at the successful completion of the trial runs as they have been under intense pressure since being unable to launch the service in September as planned.

Mr Tien said the KCRC's board of directors would meet on Friday to set the date for the launch.

He revealed that there would be several days of trial runs with passengers before the full service was launched, and proceeds from ticket sales would be going to charity.

The 40.5-km West Rail will provide a much-needed link between growing population centres in the northwest New Territories and urban Kowloon. Linking Shamshuipo in West Kowloon with Tuen Mun, it will have nine stations: two in Shamshuipo, one in Tsuen Wan, four in Yuen Long and two in Tuen Mun.

Meanwhile, the Light Rail's new Tim Shui Wai extension opened yesterday.

Mr Tien said the KCRC had assigned about 30 buses to deal with any problems that could arise during the initial period of operation.

The 4.4 km-long extension, which cost $1.15 billion, has 11 stops and will carry about 80,000 to 100,000 passengers per day.

2. KCRC to seek licence for $46b rail link
Staff reporter, The Standard 8 December 2003

The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation will today apply for an operating licence for the new HK$46 billion West Rail link.

This follows the successful completion of six weeks of trials.

KCRC chairman Michael Tien said the line was still scheduled to open later this month, though a date had yet to be fixed.

And Tien revealed that fares could be cut on the first day or two of operations, so people could get used to the system. He said the money collected in the initial period would be donated to charity.

The opening day will be decided at a meeting on Friday.

In October, Tien revealed there were signalling system glitches on the new West Rail. Previously, Tien had predicted the railway would open by September, October and then November.

Under its contract with the government, the KCRC must have the railway operating before 2004.

3. Cathedral wins heritage award
BENJAMIN WONG, SCMP 8 December 2003

Unesco recognition for cathedral

The 115-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Caine Road received a special birthday present yesterday when it was given a Unesco award for cultural heritage conservation.

A Hong Kong building has received an award every year since they were established four years ago.

Unesco regional adviser for culture for Asia and the Pacific, Richard Engelhardt, presented the award at the church's anniversary celebrations yesterday.

The Catholic cathedral received an honourable mention for Culture Heritage Conservation in the 2003 Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards.

It joins an exclusive club of culturally important buildings in Hong Kong. The others are the King Law Ka Shuk in Tai Po, the Ohel Leah Synagogue in Mid-Levels and the Hung Shing Old Temple in Sai Kung.

This year, 22 buildings from nine Asia-Pacific countries competed for nine awards from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. All the buildings were more than 50 years old and restoration work had been completed within the past 10 years.

The cathedral has undergone restoration works on its leaking roof, foundations and external walls. Stained-glass windows displaying themes based on Chinese martyrs have replaced the former plain-glass windows.

Mr Engelhardt praised the work: "The conservation project has not only consolidated the physical historic fabric of the building but also renewed the spiritual and social life of Hong Kong's Roman Catholic community."

The first corner stone of the cathedral was laid in 1842, a year after the British first occupied Hong Kong, with the wooden-roofed structure completed a year later. A fire in 1859 destroyed it and the existing cathedral rose from the ashes in 1860.

4. Activists to drop fight if harbour appeal lost
LOUISA YAN, SCMP 8 December 2003

The Society for the Protection of the Harbour will stop its campaign against dredging work in Central if it loses its case over the Wan Chai reclamation, activist Winston Chu Ka-Sun said yesterday. The society's case goes before the Court of Final Appeal tomorrow.

"If we lose the Wan Chai reclamation case, we will not fight to suspend the Central reclamation work legally because we won't have any grounds to back us up," the society's former chairman said.

"But if we win the case we will keep fighting to stop the dredging work in Central," he said after a seminar on preserving the harbour.

The Town Planning Board's appeal against an August court ruling that said the Wan Chai reclamation Phase 2 violated the Harbour Protection Ordinance will be heard from tomorrow to December 16. A judicial review on the Central reclamation is set for February 9 to 12.

Mr Chu reiterated that no harbour reclamation should be allowed unless the government could prove it was necessary and no better alternative could be found.

The society unsuccessfully sought an injunction to halt all reclamation projects in the harbour until the final judgment was made this month.

On Friday, Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung said although an internal government review justified the urgency and necessity to press ahead with the Central reclamation, work would not resume until the appeal hearing.

The government says there is a need to build the Central-Wan Chai bypass to ease traffic congestion and to build a promenade on the waterfront.

But Vincent Ng Wing-shun, of the Institute of Architects, said building a promenade involved design concepts that could not be outlined in legal statements.

"It is worrying that in future, the right to judge whether we should or could fill the harbour is in the hands of the judges," he told the public seminar.