Page 6 - ENGLISH_Land

1. Prioritising transportation in urban development : That the Tung Chung
New Town has been constantly falling short of its original planned
capacity is also partly due to the chronic shortage of supporting
community facilities. Without notable improvements in transportation
in Lantau, the existing problems of long commute time and high
transportation costs, will be further exacerbated by the increased
population intake of the Lantau Development. Worse still, the town may
become a bottleneck after the completion of HKZMB. To avoid the city’s
past planning mistakes in developing new towns, transportation must
be prioritised in the Lantau Development blueprint.

Local stakeholders of Tung Chung and the Airport almost unanimously
reflect that the existing network of public buses and roads fail to
connect the two said locations effectively and efficiently. Indeed, whilst
the distance between Tung Chung city centre and the Hong Kong
International Airport (HKIA) is 4 km, similar to that between Central and
Causeway Bay, the travelling time between the former is 30 minutes,
which is three times that of the latter (10 minutes).

In the short-term, we recommend an increase in the frequency of the
current bus routes connecting the Tung Chung residential areas and
the airport island. We believe a 10-minute interval between buses would
help to provide a more reliable and predictable transportation services
to the Tung Chung residents working on the airport island, such that
the advantages of the proximity between the two locations could be
fully realised.

2. Balancing the different aspirations in different regions : Varying
development strategies for different regions of the Lantau Island
should be devised. In view of the large differences between northern
and southern Lantau Island, we suggest adopting the principle of
“development in the north, conservation in the south”.

3 Maximising the “clustering effect” : Lantau should be established as a
world-class “showcase” under the planning concept of an “Aerotropolis”
centres around HKIA, connecting the North Commercial District (NCD),
AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE), Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities
(HKBCF) Island, Tung Chung and Siu Ho Wan. The complete industry
chain within the “Aerotropolis” will transform Lantau into a world-class
tertiary industry hub in the Pearl River Delta, providing such services as
transportation, trade, logistics, tourism, healthcare, retail and education
to visitors and businesses.

In particular, the first phase of NCD development can provide 2 million
sf of commercial space, which can support a large-scale commercial
complex that provides a myriad of services to tourists visiting or
transiting through Hong Kong. With enough transportation support,
such as a new railway station, sufficient car-parking lots and park-
and-ride/-fly facilities, tourists can plan their entire itinerary on the
Lantau or even the airport island, thereby relieving the pressure on
the transportation system between the Lantau and the city. The NCD
development was proposed in the 2014 Policy Address by the Chief
Executive. We suggest the government to work closely with the Airport

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