Ordinary Gweilo

I notice that the KCR is advertising their "direct" service from Tsim Sha Tsui East to Lok Ma Chau.  The irony here is that when the "Southern Link" is completed in a couple of years, it will be necessary to change at Hung Hom so it won’t be direct at all.

Mind you, maybe by then people will actually want to go to Lok Ma Chau.

It reminds me that a few years ago, the MTR extended the Kwun Tong line to North Point and constructed new platforms that provided a same-level interchange for passengers arriving on the Kwun Tong line and travelling west on the Island Line (and vice versa).  Which is a splendid thing, of course.

They then ran an advertising campaign extolling the virtues of this new interchange, and the few minutes it would save on each journey.

Which is all very well, except that less than a year later the Kwun Tong line was diverted to Tseung Kwan O and passengers for Quarry Bay or North Point had to change trains at Yau Tong.  Not so fast any more!!