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Peak Tram

Coordinates: 22°16′19.36″N 114°9′17.52″E / 22.2720444°N 114.1548667°E / 22.2720444; 114.1548667
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Peak Tram
Overview
LocaleHong Kong
Transit typeFunicular railway
Number of stations6
Daily ridershipAbout 17,000
Operation
Began operation30 May 1888
Operator(s)The Peninsula Hotels
Technical
System length1.365 kilometres (0.848 mi)
Track gauge1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) Russian gauge

The Peak Tram (Chinese: 山頂纜車) is a funicular railway in Hong Kong, which carries both tourists and residents to the upper levels of Hong Kong Island. Running from Garden Road Admiralty to Victoria Peak via the Mid-Levels, it provides the most direct route and offers good views over the harbour and skyscrapers of Hong Kong.

The Peak Tram is owned and operated by Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH), the owner of Hong Kong's famous Peninsula Hotel along with many other properties. The line, along with HSH's Peak Tower leisure complex at the line's summit, is promoted using the brand The Peak.[1][2]

Route

Legend
Garden Road (until 2019)
 Central Terminus
Cotton Tree Drive
 Kennedy Road
Kennedy Road
Disused tram depot
MacDonnell Road
 MacDonnell Road
Bowen Road (until 1985)
Magazine Gap Road
May Road
 May Road
Passing loop
 Barker Road
Barker Road
 The Peak Terminus
This diagram:

The Peak Tram's route from Central district to Victoria Peak covers a distance of about 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) and an elevation of just under 400 metres (1,312 ft). The line has two pronounced curves, one to the left immediately after leaving the lower terminus, and the other to the right in the upper half of the ascent. The gradient also varies considerably throughout the ascent. It is a single track route and a passing loop, with two trams.

Uphill tram route 1897

The lower terminus station, Garden Road, is located on Garden Road near St. John's Cathedral. The original station was incorporated into St. John's Building, an office tower, with the tram terminus at the ground level. The station comprises a single track, with platforms on both sides. One platform is used for boarding, the other for exiting the tram.

The upper terminus, The Peak is located below the Peak Tower shopping and leisure complex at Victoria Gap, some 150 metres below the summit of Victoria Peak. The station has the same arrangement of boarding and alighting platforms as the lower terminus. The haulage and control equipment for the funicular is located in a basement below the station.

There are also four intermediate stations, each of which is a request stop consists of a single stepped platform and a shelter:

History

Peak Tram Garden Road Terminus, circa 1890
The Peak Tram, Garden Road Terminus, circa 1920
Peak Tram Car from 1956, now plinthed near the upper terminus, and still carrying a headboard celebrating the line's centenary in 1988

In 1881 Alexander Findlay Smith first put the project of a Peak Railway into shape and presented a petition for a concession to the governor of Hong Kong. The necessary legislation was passed two years later.

After its opening to 1926, the Peak Tram divided into three classes:

  • First Class: British colonial officials and residents of Victoria Peak
  • Second Class: British military and the Hong Kong Police Force personnel
  • Third Class: Other people and animals

Round trip charges were HKD 45 cents (First Class), 30 cents (Second Class) and 15 cents (Third Class).

In the 1908-1949 period, first row seats are reserved for the governor of Hong Kong, behind displaying "This seat reservation to His Excellency the Governor" (reserved for the governor of Hong Kong) in bronze plaque.

Findlay Smith did not approach the project rashly. Travelling extensively in Europe and America, he made himself conversant with nearly every existing method of railway employed for mountain ascent — San Francisco, Scarborough, Rigi, Monterey, Lucerne, the Rhine, Mount Vesuvius — and returned to Hong Kong thoroughly convinced of the feasibility of his idea. The actual construction was begun in September 1885 and in May 1888 the line was officially opened.[3]

Smith's business partner, N. J. Ede, owned and lived in the house next to the Upper Terminus, originally named Dunheved, which they converted into the original Peak Hotel.

It took three years to build the Peak Tram. Most of the heavy equipment and rails needed for the construction was hauled uphill by the workers, who had no mechanical support.[4] As a revolutionary new form of transport to Asia at the time, the tramway was considered a marvel in engineering upon its completion.[4] A wooden structure was built for the terminal.[4] According to photographs, the Garden Road terminus was originally an unadorned building, a large clock face was added to the edifice probably between the 1910s and 1920s.

The Peak Tram was opened for public service on 28 May 1888 by the then governor Sir George William des Voeux.[4] As built, the line used a static steam engine to power the haulage cable. It was at first used only for residents of Victoria Peak, although despite this it carried 800 passengers on its first day of operation, and about 150,000 in its first year.[4] These passengers were carried in the line's wooden bodied cars.[5] Its existence accelerated the residential development of Victoria Peak and the Mid Levels.

In the course of its history, the tram has been victim of two natural disasters, caused by floods from heavy rainfall, which washed away steep sections of the track between Bowen Road and Kennedy Road. The first was in 1899, and the second occurred on 12 June 1966.[4]

In 1926, the steam engine was replaced by an electric motor. On 11 December 1941, during the Battle of Hong Kong, the engine room was damaged in an attack. Service was not resumed until 25 December 1945, after the end of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.[5]

In 1956, the Peak Tram was equipped with a new generation of lightweight metal bodied cars, each of which seated 62-seat passengers. Unusually for a funicular line, three such cars were provided, only two of which were in use at any one time. The third spare car was kept in a car shed near Kennedy Road station.[5]

The system was comprehensively rebuilt in 1989 by the Swiss company, Von Roll, with new track, a computerized control system and two new two-car trams with a capacity of 120 passengers per tram. By the time of the handover in 1997, it carried some 2 million passengers annually.[4] Today, more than 4 million people ride the Peak Tram annually, or an average of over 11,000 every day.[5]

Statistics

Current Peak Tram car approaching the upper terminus

The Peak Tram is a funicular railway, with the following technical parameters:[6]

  • Length: 1,364 metres (4,475 ft)
  • Height: 368 metres (1,207 ft)
  • Maximum Steepness: 48 %
  • Track Gradient: 4–27 degrees
  • Cars: 2 two-car train sets
  • Car Builder: Gangloff AG,[7] Switzerland
  • Capacity: 120 passengers per train set
  • Configuration: Single track with passing loop
  • Journey time: average 4.9 minutes
  • Maximum speed: 6 metres per second (19.69 ft/s)
  • Track gauge: 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) Russian gauge
  • Traction: Electric

Only a 1956 fourth generation all aluminum car survives and is displayed at the upper terminal. All original cars as well as second and third generation cars no longer exist. A replica of the first car is displayed in the Peak Tram Historical Gallery.

No. 1 Lugard Road

Start of Lugard Road, next to the Peak Tower and The Peak Lookout: the white building is No. 1 Lugard Road.

The building at No. 1 Lugard Road, located next to the Peak Tower and The Peak Lookout, was built about 1927 by The Peak Tramways Co. Ltd. as a workshop, with an additional floor added in 1953 to provide a flat for the General Manager of Company. The building is still owned and used by the Peak Tramways Company.[8] It is a Grade III historic building since 2010.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels - Peak Tramways". The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  2. ^ "The Peak". The Peak. Archived from the original on 6 March 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  3. ^ 1930s Booklet "The Shortcut to Beauty, Hong Kong's Peak Tram" circa 1930
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Eric Cavaliero, Grand old lady to turn 110. The Standard, 24 July 1997
  5. ^ a b c d "Peak Tram History". The Peak Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 20 February 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  6. ^ "Peak Tramway". Funiculars.net. Retrieved 13 March 2007.
  7. ^ Gangloff AG
  8. ^ Brief Information on Proposed Grade 3 Items, Item #886.
  9. ^ List of the Historic Buildings in Building Assessment (as of 21 September 2012) Archived September 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peak Tram.

22°16′19.36″N 114°9′17.52″E / 22.2720444°N 114.1548667°E / 22.2720444; 114.1548667

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