Vehicular harbour crossings in Hong Kong

There are three vehicular harbour crossings in Hong Kong, linking the Kowloon peninsula with Hong Kong Island. These are as follows:

Prior to the CHT, vehicular traffic used ferry services that began in 1933 and service ceased by HYF in 1998.( This earliest road tunnel, now government owned, opened in 1972. Increasing population and improving prosperity made the construction of further tunnels a necessity. The Eastern Harbour Crossing (opened September 1989) and the Western Harbour Crossing (opened 1997) were subsequently built across Victoria Harbour to ease the burden on the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. For all three tunnels, the government opted for a 30-year private-sector franchise based on a build–operate–transfer model.

Two reasons include the less convenient locations of the other two tunnels compared with the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and more importantly the control of new tunnels by the powerful state-owned investment group CITIC Pacific. The tolls for crossing each of the other two tunnels are significantly higher, and were further increased in 2005 by up to 67% to boost investment returns. Another possible reason for added traffic is induced demand, a theory in transportation planning which posits that the more roads that are created, the more people will choose to commute by car. In this case, by adding additional tunnels, it may have encouraged more people to drive overall, because of a perception that there is increased road capacity.

The Government of Hong Kong granted the franchises by enacting legislation that also fixed the revenue and fare model of the tunnel and is thus powerless to prevent the sharp increase in tolls despite public uproar when toll increases were applied for.

The Government states public buses (which are usually 90% full) cause congestion.

The fourth harbour crossing is being proposed in Hong Kong as the fourth underwater tunnel to cross the Victoria Harbour to ease the traffic through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. Even though the Western Harbour Crossing, operated by CITIC Pacific Limited, was built for this purpose, the tolls for crossing is triple the rates of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, proving the Western Harbour Crossing ineffective in diverting traffic from the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. Around this time, a new tunnel between North Point and Kowloon Bay was suggested to relieve the stress on the Cross-Harbour Tunnel.

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