Ocean Park breaks through to the other side
One of Ocean Park’s signature features is the spectacular cable car ride that links the Hong Kong facility’s lowland and headland areas. Yet this breathtaking journey alongside the South China Sea is not for everyone, and neither is it a quick way to commute from one part of the park to the other.
With this in mind, and as part of Ocean Park’s ongoing HK$5.5 billion redevelopment programme, a 1.2km tunnel is under construction which, when opened in 2009, win run parallel to the cable car and link the renamed Waterfront and Summit areas in less than three minutes. The tunnel will be the home to the Ocean Express funicular railway and feature four trains (two in each direction), with a maximum capacity of 5,000 park guests per hour each way.
After the recent breakthrough of the tunnel, workers are now lining the walls ahead of track laying, which is expected to start very soon. The Ocean Express trains are currently being fabricated in Switzerland. “The tunnel breakthrough will go down as a pivotal point in our development,” said Ocean Park chairman Dr Allan Zeman (pictured here) at a ceremony to mark the construction milestone in June.
