West Rail Phase I, the largest infrastructure project currently underway in Hong Kong, is a 30.5-km (18.5-mile) long domestic twin-track passenger railway that links South West Kowloon with the North West New Territories. PB was commissioned by Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) in March 1998 to prepare detailed design documents and provide design coordination and site supervision services required for construction of three of the major West Rail Phase I facilities:

• The Pat Heung Maintenance Centre
  
  
• The West Rail (Headquarters) Building
  
  
• The Kam Sheung Road Station (one of the project's nine stations).

In the planned Phase II, the Kam Sheung Road Station will be one of the major stations with interchange (intermodal) platforms. It is also one of the five "line" stations identified as "emergency termini" that need to be capable of continued operation in the event of an incident causing an adjacent line segment to either close one line or close completely. For this reason, we designed the associated public transport interchange (intermodal platform) specially to meet the requirements of handling passengers during various emergency scenarios.

Basic Design of the Public Transport Interchange

Situated in the rural country areas of Kam Tin and Pat Heung, Kam Sheung Road Station is above ground on a viaduct with the concourse at grade and the platform at viaduct level. Parking facilities and loading/unloading areas are located to the west of the station while the public transport interchange is located to the east. Bicycle parking is also located within the public transport interchange. New access roads that link the station with nearby trunk roads are being built as part of the project to cope with the potential increase in traffic flow in the area after West Rail opens.

Our design of the intermodal facilities was based on patronage analyses, particularly the AM and PM peak hour patronage. We then analysed the overall patronage further to determine the share of these patrons amongst the different modes of access-walking, bus, minibus, feeder bus, other bus, taxi and car.

Based on our analysis results, we recommended the following facilities to ensure that the public transport interchange would provide for quick and convenient interchange between rail and the other transport modes:

• Bus terminus capable of accommodating five terminating routes and two passing routes
  
  
• Public light bus terminus capable of serving seven different routes
  
  
• Private bus/coach lay-by
  
  
• Urban taxi stand
  
  
• Rural taxi stand
  
  
• Kiss-and-ride facility
  
  
• Facilities for ancillary uses, such as operator's office and public toilets
  
  
• Cycle park
  
  
• Automobile park (discussed below in more detail)
  
  
• Pedestrian crossings with clearly defined routes
  
  
• Access route for emergency vehicles.

We proposed an automobile park (parking facility) located immediately west of Kam Sheung Road Station. The size of this facility depends on several factors, however, such as parking cost, need for car, car availability factors, value of time, etc. We suggested a normal interlocking layout at a parking angle of 90 degrees. The dimensions of the parking stalls were the standard 2.5 m x 5.0 m (8.25 feet x 16.5 feet) and the lot was divided into sub-areas by an internal road circulation network of one-way roadways to reduce vehicular conflict as far as possible. This facility is shown on Figure 1, which illustrates the entire passenger transport facility.

Design for Passenger Transfer During Abnormal/Emergency Conditions

Figure 1: Passenger Transport Interchange

In designing Kam Sheung Road Station as an emergency terminus, we examined four possible scenarios. For each scenario we assessed the capacity of the station, including the public transport interchange, in relation to the following considerations:

• Platform and Concourse Capacity. Capacity assessments were conducted for station platform and vertical and concourse circulation elements.
  
  
• Emergency Road Transport Provision. We examined the maximum demand for emergency road transport provisions to carry passengers to other stations. This demand was compared with the supply of road transport and constraints were identified to highlight the situation when the abnormal operation arrangement of the railway has to be altered.
  
  
• Areas for Queuing Passengers and Bus Loading Points. Adequate space was provided to accommodate the requirements as identified in the analyses.
  
  
• Bus Loading Points. The number of bus loading points for passengers awaiting onward transfer to other stations was identified for use in various combinations.
  
  
• Crowd Control. Actual emergency termini scenarios could cause significant crowd control problems, particularly if the scenario were to occur on a very hot or wet day, so we evaluated the sizes of crowds during these conditions to ensure that the layout of the public transport interchange would be adequate.

The results of our analyses demonstrated that we had designed the Kam Sheung Road Station and its associated public transport interchange to handle normal and emergency conditions. The design of station and the associated intermodal facilities has been completed and these facilities are now under construction.