Notes » December 2007

Farewell, KCR

It's official, train fans: the Kowloon-Canton Railway is no more.

View large image As of 12.45 am on December 1, 2007, the 96-year old institution was absorbed into the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, unifying Hong Kong's entire rail network.

No longer will you see the KCR logo, except in museums. In 12 hours more than 1,000 workers replaced signs, maps and logos in stations and aboard trains: the start of a 5-week operation to purge the system of all traces of the defunct rail company.

Two obvious changes are the renaming of the KCR's Mong Kok and Tsuen Wan stations to Mong Kok East and Tsuen Wan West, to avoid confusion with existing MTR stations. The merger also means lower fares on some routes, which is good news for commuters. But they can expect the annoying escalator safety announcements to continue without pause.

Farewell KCR, it was great knowing you.

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