KCR East Rail

KCR East Rail

The East Rail Line (Chinese: 東鐵綫) is, the first, and one of ten railway lines of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system in Hong Kong. It used to be one of the three lines of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) network. It was known as the KCR British Section (九廣鐵路英段) from 1910 to 1996, and the KCR East Rail (九廣東鐵) from 1996 to 2007.

The railway line starts at Hung Hom Station in Kowloon and branches in the north at Sheung Shui to terminate at Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau stations. Both are boundary crossing points into Shenzhen. It was the only railway line of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) before the construction of KCR West Rail (now known as West Rail Line). After the opening of the KCR West Rail, the original KCR British Section was renamed KCR East Rail (East Rail Line) to avoid confusion.

The same railway is used for passenger and freight services crossing the boundary to other cities, including Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. These longer distance passenger services (dubbed "Through Trains") start at Hung Hom and end at their termini in the mainland. The line is generally double tracked and electrified, except for certain goods sheds. Immigration and customs facilities are available at Hung Hom (for Through Train passengers) and Lo Wu/Lok Ma Chau (for border interchange passengers) stations.

The railway line was operated by Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) prior to the MTR-KCR merger and has since been taken over by MTR Corporation on 2 December 2007 after the merger was completed.

The line is coloured light blue on the MTR map. The distance between Hung Hom and Lo Wu stations is 34 km.