East Kowloon Line (1970 scheme)

East Kowloon Line (Chinese: 東九龍綫) was one of the original five MTR lines proposed in the late 1970s in Hong Kong, which would have connected Sheung Wan with East Kowloon, eventually becoming part of the proposed Sha Tin to Central Link.

In September 1967 the Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates of Britain published a proposal to construct a mass transit system in Hong Kong, in which East Kowloon Line was called Sha Tin Line, connecting Wo Liu Hang in Fo Tan and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates published a new report on MTR construction in 1970, with the original Sha Tin Line cut back from Sha Tin to Diamond Hill to become East Kowloon Line, and extended across the harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui to Sheung Wan.

The new report stated that the Sha Tin section need not be built immediately since an error was made in the 1966 census. However, the report pointed out that the cross-harbour traffic demand for the East Kowloon area would be heavy, necessitating an extension to Rumsey.

With the withdrawal of the Japanese consortium from the MTR construction contract in 1975, the Government announced that the initial system would be reduced to 15.6 km to become the Modified Initial System. Construction arrangements would be made on the MIS to facilitate EKL construction at a later time, and the EKL would eventually be able to extend to Wo Liu Hang as originally planned.

Although the 1970 proposal stated that Sha Tin District did not need a metro during the meantime, the 1975 proposal pointed out that the demand of the EKL would be too low to support construction of the line, if the Sha Tin section was not built together.

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