XRL – Railroading Consensus – It’s Not Working

Hong Kong – It’s just a short railway spur, running 26 km from Kowloon to the border with China. But it has ignited a slew of protests and rallies which culminated in angry crowds besieging the Legislative Council, trapping lawmakers and government officials inside for six hours.

The controversy has also injected new energy into campaigns for more democracy in the territory where only half the legislature is directly elected and the Chief Executive is selected by a hand-picked committee approved by Beijing.

Top Right: The siege of Legco. January 16, 2010. After a gruelling two day session, the bill giving the go-ahead to the high-speed Express Rail Link (XRL) was approved by a 31-21 vote, sparking off populist anger that resulted in scuffles with riot police on guard at the Legislative Council building. Photo by Alex Hofford.

Hong Kong’s new Express Rail Link (XRL) has been dubbed the most expensive railway in the world: HK$66.9 billion (US$8.6 billion) for 26 km of track. And that is part of the problem. Opponents argue the cost is too high in terms of both price and sacrifice — its construction requires the demolition of an entire village in the New Territories. Much of their anger is directed at what they perceive as government high-handedness and a lack of public discussion and accountability.

“There is no consensus in this society right now,” said activist Christina Chan, a student at The University of Hong Kong. “[The government] should do more consultation and should pull this back.”

The government argues the rail line — which was finally approved (opponents says railroaded through) – on January 16 after several marathon sittings in the Legislative Council — will allow passengers to travel from West Kowloon in Hong Kong to Guangzhou in 48 minutes.

Passengers will need to change once, because the rail link does not reach Guangzhou’s city centre, but instead stops in an outer suburb of the city, where it will connect to the rest of China’s ambitious high-speed rail network, currently under construction.

Critics argue the total travel time between the two cities will be only marginally shorter than the journey on the existing rail service and see Hong Kong’s determination to link to China’s new high-speed system as a result of political pressure from Beijing.

Many of the protesters were not against the prospect of constructing a rail link to Guangzhou, but were dissatisfied with the apparent inefficiency of the government’s decision-making.

“Actually we support the construction, but we oppose the high budget,” said City University student Alvin Tang.

“We have another proposal for around half the price. We’ve had many professional study analyses to prove our proposal is as good as [the government's], but they didn’t listen to us.”

Coming just days after a large rally for universal suffrage, on January 1, tensions ran high among protesters, spearheaded by young activists nicknamed the “Post-80s Generation” because many were born in the 1980s. They are a loose-knit organisation with no formal leadership who rely on social networking sites to organise their opposition.

Their indignation was fuelled when Christina Chan, a leading light among the Post-80s Generation, was subject to a high-profile arrest by plain-clothed police on 8 January, for allegedly assaulting a police officer at a rally several months earlier.