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7.14.4 The Yau Ma Tei to Sheung Wan crossing would extend the MTR Kwun long Linesouth to a station on Chatham Road serving Tsim Sha Tsui East and then on acrossthe harbour to interchange with the MTR Island Line at Sheung Wan.7.14.5 The Yau Ma Tei to Fortress Line would extend the MTR Kwun Tong line south-eastto an interchange with the KCR at Hung Hom and then across the harbour tointerchange with the MTR Island Line at Fortress.Patronage Projections7.14.6 Projected volumes for the two alternative crossings are compared with the existingand Eastern Harbour crossings below (in thousands of passengers per day):1996 2001Sheung Wan CrossingYau Ma Tes to TST East 280 320TST East to Sheung Wan 210 240Existing Crossing 690 790Eastern Harbour Crossing 1 240 280Fortress CrossingYau Ma Tei to Hung Hom 310 350Hung Hom to Fortress 300 350Existing Crossing 650 730Eastern Harbour Crossing 1 250 2601 Planned to open in late-19897.14.7 The Yau Ma Tes to Fortress crossing is clearly the more effective of the two inrelieving the existing rail harbour crossing, probably because it provides a betterconnection to the fast developing Wan Chas and Causeway Bay areas. On the otherhand, the Sheung Wan crossing might carry more passengers than indicated here,attracted by a relatively congestion-free crossing reaching the edge of CentralDistrict.7.14.8 The Fortress Crossing is clearly more useful in relieving the overloaded KowloonTong interchange between the MTR and the KCR. With the Fortress Crossing,passengers using the KCR for travel between the New Territories and Hong KongIsland would be able to interchange with the MTR at Hung Hom.Financial/Economic Evaluation7.14.9 On the basis of earlier tests, the Fortress crossing was selected for more detailedanalysis and was carried forward to the stage of economic evaluation. The SheungWan alternative was subject to a financial evaluation only.7.14.10 Neither crossing performs well on the financial evaluation. In the case of the SheungWan crossing, few additional revenues are generated for MTR since revenues gainedby the new crossing represent revenues lost from the existing crossing. Thusadditional revenues do not cover operating costs and depreciation and give aNegative return on investment. The Fortress crossing generates rather greaterrevenues but still rate only as LOW.7.14.11 The economic evaluation for the Fortress crossing indicates MEDIUM to HIGHreturns on investment. However, time savings are an important component of this; ifone third of timing savings is made, the returns reduce to LOW for both 1996 and2001.7.14.12 As with the KCR extensions discussed earlier, the economic and financial evaluationsdo not properly account for overloading in the MTR Nathan Road Corridor. Inpractice, the usefulness of the crossings to MTR would be in the relief of congestionenabling MTR to carry all the projected traffic demand. In other words, without theadditional crossings, MTR would not be able to realise the entire projected demandand associated revenues.145