Kowloon Station (MTR)

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Exits from Kowloon Station in Union Square

Kowloon Station ( Chinese  九龍 站  /  九龙 站 , Pinyin Jiǔlóngzhàn , Jyutping Gau 2 lung 4 zaam 1 ) is a station on the Airport Express subway line , which connects Hong Kong International Airport (Chep Lap Kok) with the center of Hong Kong, and Tung Chung Line . Kowloon Station is located in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon , Hong Kong . The importance of the Kowloon Station, which opened in 1998, results, among other things, from its location on the underground floors of the large Union Square building complex with 16 skyscrapers.

Surname

Kowloon Station MTR should not be confused with West Kowloon Station (WKS) on the Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong high-speed line (also known as West Kowloon Terminus during construction ); Austin Station is also to be distinguished from the MTR station, called West Kowloon Station during the early construction phase .

history

After MTRC , the operator of the MTR subway in Hong Kong, was commissioned to build the Airport Express in 1992 , the planning phase began: apart from the line with a total of seven stations, the main focus was on Kowloon Station, the largest of them which should be located underground under the planned Union Square complex . This residential, office and shopping area - like the MTR station - was to be built on a site that had been reclaimed by landfill. The entire property was under the auspices of the Hong Kong government and the MTRC. Also in 1992, the London architecture firm Farrells was entrusted with the task of working out appropriate drafts and designs for the MTR station and, above all, drafting a master plan for the above-ground development and later coordinating this with the respective architects. Four years after planning began, construction work began in 1996. While construction work on Union Square lasted until 2010, the Airport Express began operating on July 6, 1998 (the Tung Chung Line on June 22, 1998), with Kowloon as well Station went into operation. The "topping-out ceremony" for the Kowloon Station took place in September 1997.

Design, connection to Union Square

Exit C, interior view

Kowloon Station takes up about 6 acres of the 13.5 acres of Union Square. It is located in the middle of the square on three floors. The station has an outsourced airport check-in desk with baggage drop, a shuttle service to most hotels in Tsim Sha Tsui and Yau Ma Tei, etc.

The connection of the station to the above-ground ensemble of 16 skyscrapers and the three-storey shopping center was the task of the Farrels architecture office. It happened as part of the West Kowloon Development project (often also Kowloon Station Development). This project included both the land reclamation in western Kowloon ( West Kowloon Reclamation ) and the construction of the station, Union Square and other objects. It is thanks to this joint planning and the timely development of a master plan for the entire property that the station is optimally integrated into the building ensemble of Union Square.

The station has several exits to Union Square and the shopping center and is also directly connected to some high-rise buildings. This also applies to the bus terminal and several taxi stands. Kowloon Station is also relatively close to the other two neighboring train stations Austin Station and West Kowloon Station , which can even be reached on foot.

Individual evidence

  1. MTR 35th Anniversary , an MTR timeline, online at: mtr.com.hk/.../E110
  2. a b Charlie QL Xue, Hailin Zhai, Joshua Roberts: An urban island floating on the MTR station: A case study of the West Kowloon development in Hong Kong , in: Urban Design International, No. 4 / August 2010, page 191ff. , freely accessible online at: researchgate.net / ...
  3. HIGHLIGHTS , A Timeline of the Airport Express, Info from the Hong Kong Government, online at: info.gov.hk/archive / ...
  4. a b c Hong Kong Airport Railway , report by the University of Hong Kong, online at: www.omegacentre.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk / ... , p. 29ff.
  5. Kowloon Station Development , short info from the Farrells architecture office, online at: farrells.com / ...
  6. Kowloon Station layout , drawing of the MTR, online at: mtr.com.hk/.../layouts/kow
  7. Hong Kong / Kowloon Station Development - Transport Super City , short report on the occasion of the Delta Four 1984–2044 (Hong Kong Architecture Biennale 2015), online (archived) at: web.archive.org/.../venicebiennale.hk/. ..
  8. Kowloon Station street map , drawing of the MTR, online at: mtr.com.hk/.../maps/kow

Coordinates: 22 ° 18 ′ 17.6 "  N , 114 ° 9 ′ 41.4"  E