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'It is important for any metro system to attract the maximum number of passengers, and this is particularly true in Hong Kong where the system was required by Government to meet the whole capital and operating costs out of fare revenue '.
I would not like to wager a bet on the above statement, as they were the MTR system designer who cut the cloth to suit. However, I would question the bit about the fare collection to pay for the capital cost of the system? Not that it is impossible! All the present Build, Operate & Transfer (BOT), or Public, Private, Partnership (PPP), etc. are all models that plays that card, making a ton of money for the Banks & financial institution in the process. The pain side is making fares expensive, taking more than 20 years to pay out the debt, etc.
The colonial government came up with an innovative solution (A capitalist system with a socialist framework): A blend of private and public investment. Instead of solely funding the MTR system's construction, they provided development rights for land around stations and depots to the MTR Corporation. The MTR, in turn, engaged developers, paid land taxes, and shared profits with the government. This unique approach allows the government (which owns almost two-thirds of MTR shares), to generate revenue from a socially useful infrastructure projects.
For the first MTR line, the Kwun Tong Line (KTL), the below two developments paid part of the bills. However, the latter was developed later. Retained as land bank, leveraged when the development potential was better.
The Kowloon Bay, Telford Garden Development
The Kowloon Bay, Telford Garden Development
Pic. Aerial view of Kowloon Bay area with MTR development. Purple block is the Kowloon Bay station, ground level fan tracks leading to the deport at ground level is visible in the foreground.
Let's look at the Kowloon Bay station development to understand the Property Plus Rail model. Which is also the Transport Oriented Development (ToD) that MTR introduced to the world. Please review this in conjunction with the last chapter, where we discussed the Wong Tong's designed Mei Foo development, as the property development was also designed by Wong Tong & Partners.
This development (Telford Garden) consists of the main depot for the KTL on the ground level. Above which is the Public Transport Interchange (PTI), carpark, shopping center & the residential blocks above. The Kowloon Bay Station is contiguous to the development and is an elevated station. Overall, this development paid more than 18% of the capital cost of the line.
The recent data from Centaline, below, shows that this development houses more than 13 thousand resident, more in the adjacent office tower, which is the main headquarter of the MTR.
Fig. Graphical Sect of the Kowloon Bay MTR development. Depot on ground and station to the extreme right
The below station layout map shows how the station is further connected across Kwun Tong Road to substantially increase the patronage of the station. The PTI then connects the station to the greater population of the Kowloon Bay area.
Enabling a textbook Transport Oriented Development (ToD) in early 1980.
Fig. 3D map of Kowloon Bay Elevated station. Footbridge at ends link to hinterland passengers. Yellow VT to Telford Garden Dev
Fig. The Telford Garden ToD development dwarfs the area.
These are some of the key Designer's salient points for the Kowloon Bay ToD Development.
Structural System: The residential towers structural system was engineered around the residential units. the podium carpark/shopping area needed a different one, or the depot at the ground level.
The engineers devised a discrete transfer plate, that successfully setup an engineering solution for the vertical challenges of residential, commercial and transit structures, via a huge reinforced concrete transfer plate at the base of the towers, which then transfer the tower column load to other columns at the podium level, which was sized to be sympathetic to the structural grid required by the depot. Similar arrangement was also followed for station, if it was at grade, elevated, etc.
The services, to and from the residential tower, podium and the depot below was also successfully routed, sometimes via the transit spaces below.
This was also a legal hurdle, as you had vertical legal stratification, which was owned by different people, entities, etc. Similarly building by-laws required to be exercised differently as the building codes was applicable to all the built form except the transit spaces, which followed a different system. For example, the transit columns will be fire rated to 4 HR Fire rating period, whilst the above could be 1 hour only.
The Architect Wong Tong & Partners had a substantial role to play in these designs, particularly on the building planning and statutory controls, as many of these requirements were alien to the city and the Building Department.
The station designers relied on prevailing design principles for station and depot layouts, as global design codes were non-existent. Engineering fundamentals were primarily based on common sense practices, knowledge and wisdom.
The development at Telford Garden was very successful and made the Property + Rail model a huge success, worthy of being repeated, time and again.
Here are the MTR Property Development List. ( Property + Rail projects undertaken by the Corporation).
It is also important to note that the economy of Hong Kong was changing at this time, from manufacturing to the services industry. Where residential, commercial built forms were gaining value, and enabled the Lands Department to create more value from land and the corresponding tax, which while not a huge part of the GDP, enabled the vital growth of the infrastructures and the city to be self-paying.
Fig. Some studies on the ToD & P+P models in Hong Kong
Transport Oriented Development
Transport Oriented Development
©Peter Calthorpe,The next American Metropolis, 1993
©Peter Calthorpe,The next American Metropolis, 1993
Often credited with the concept of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), Peter Calthorpe, An American Architect and Urbanist delivered his urban planning model, which focuses on creating walkable, mixed-use communities centred around public transportation systems It was seminal in that it put a system that was mass transit, not motor vehicle in the centre of the new city planning.
However as one can see, the Hong Kong Property + Rail and the dense residential, commercial planning that integrated mass transit was already in practice in Hong Kong by the time the term 'ToD' was coined. Arguably Hong Kong Architects such as Wong Tong & Partners, P&T, Lee & Orange, to name a fee, took this model to China and around Asia and created this model as a main stay globally.
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