Puneet Varma (Editor)

Eastern Harbour Crossing

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Length:
  
3.3 km (2.1 mi)

West end:
  
Quarry Bay

Existed:
  
1989 – present

Opened
  
1989

Eastern Harbour Crossing httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

East end:
  
Lam Tin (near Cha Kwo Ling)

Major cities
  
Kwun Tong District, Eastern District

Similar
  
Western Harbour Crossing, Cross‑Harbour Tunnel, Tseung Kwan O Tunnel, Lam Tin Station, Kai Tak Tunnel

360video hong kong eastern harbour crossing island eastern corridor driving


The Eastern Harbour Crossing, abbreviated as "EHC" (東隧), is a tunnel in Hong Kong. It is a combined road and MTR rail link under Victoria Harbour between Quarry Bay in Hong Kong Island and Cha Kwo Ling in Kowloon East.

Contents

Map of Eastern Harbour Crossing, Hong Kong

History

The Hong Kong Government negotiated with several consortia to adopt the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model in planning new tunnels in different parts of the city.

In 1986, the government gave New Hong Kong Tunnel the right to run the Tunnel on a 30-year franchisee with lease expiring in August 2016. The tunnel features two components, a road part and a rail part:

  • The road part of the tunnel is branded as Eastern Harbour Tunnel, although the government refers to the tunnel itself as Eastern Harbour Crossing. The tunnel is governed by the Eastern Harbour Crossing Ordinance. The road part links the Island Eastern Corridor in Hong Kong Island, Lei Yue Mun Road, Tseung Kwan O Tunnel and the Kwun Tong Bypass in Kowloon East.
  • The rail part runs between Quarry Bay and Yau Tong stations of the MTR Tseung Kwan O Line.

    • The powerful Chinese investment group CITIC Pacific is interested in both parts, controlling the road part (71% stake) and has a 50% stake in the rail part. CITIC also controls 50% of the Western Harbour Tunnel Company.

    The Cross Harbour Tunnel is located right below a 14 year old residential complex — Yau Lai Estate.

    Tunnel tolls

    Tolls are collected manually or electronically in both directions at the toll plaza on the Kwun Tong side.

    Traffic

    According to the operator, in 2013, a total number of 26.3 million vehicles used the Eastern Harbour Crossing. The average daily throughput was 72.1 thousands.

    There are many cross-harbour bus routes that travel through the Eastern Harbour Crossing, operated by Kowloon Motor Bus, New World First Bus and Citybus.

    Detailed bus routes

  • Kowloon Motor Bus/New World First Bus: 302, 302A, 601, 601P, 641, 680, 680B, 680P, 680X, 692P
  • Kowloon Motor Bus/Citybus: 307, 307A, 307B, 307P, 606, 606A, 606X, 619, 619P, 619X, 621, 671, 678, 681, 681P, 690, 690P
  • Kowloon Motor Bus: 373, 603, 603P, 603S, 673
  • New World First Bus: 680A, 682, 682A, 682B, 682C, 682P, 694
  • Overnights: N619, N680, N691

    • Controversies

    In June 2005, CITIC decided to raise the toll for using Eastern Harbour Crossing from HK$15 to HK$25 for private vehicles and up to 67% for other classes of vehicles, under the fare adjustment mechanism derived from the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. This increase aroused criticisms that the model was detrimental to the public interest, with the increase shifting more traffic to the already congested Cross-Harbour Tunnel.

    References

    Eastern Harbour Crossing Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA