The new 10-year plan (2021-2030) for transport in Macau is a result of the government’s learning from Hong Kong, Singapore, and mostly, Chongqing city in Sichuan Province, the director of the Transport Bureau (DSAT), Kelvin Lam Hin San said yesterday during a session dedicated to present the plan to the local legislators.
“Macau is going to learn from Chongqing,” Lam said, adding that lessons observed from Singapore and Hong Kong were also taken into consideration in the drafting of the plan. The bottom line that determined the points of comparison between the cities is the fact that they have a public transport network grounded on railway transportation and interlinks to other public transportation, a path the government wants Macau to follow in the near future.
As Lam noted, the government wants to continue building a system in which public transport has a predominance over private transport, and in which the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system, as well as a pedestrian network, take the main roles.
According to Lam who cited the document of public consultation that will be only officially revealed to the public today, “we predict that until 2030, the efficiency of the size of the LRT network will reveal itself,” He additionally revealed that by 2030, the government expects the number of passengers to grow from 2,880 per day in 2020 to 137,000 per day.
The plan forecasts that by 2030 the urban population of Macau will be around 791,000 people, which will make the total volume of commutes in Macau reach on average around 3.02 million per day.
To account for this forecast’s findings, the government says that the only solution is to expand the LRT lines to become the main transportation method in Macau and complement it with a network of pedestrian flyovers and corridors that will interlink with major locations and other existing transport systems, namely public buses.
Lam said the conclusion of the link of the LRT from Taipa to Barra, via the Sai Van Bridge in 2024 and the conclusion of the Seac Pai Van and Hengqin lines in 2025, will contribute to the government’s vision. When the two aforementioned link ups are complete, the LRT is projected to see a major leap forward in terms of use and transportation capacity.
Lawmakers interest still to road works
In a session dedicated to hearing and responding to lawmakers’ questions on the draft plan, the majority continued to express long-held concerns such as the quantity and duration of roadworks that affect vehicle circulation across the city.
On the topic, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário said that most of the ongoing works have to do with major structural developments that are strictly necessary for the development of Macau.
Rosário also added that while the government has been trying to ensure that all the commodity concessionaires do the necessary works simultaneously, sometimes this is not possible. “There are many concessionaires and some of these road works involve urgent matters so it is difficult to have them all [the concessionaires] at one time,” he said. He offered the example of the electric power supplier CEM, saying, “If they don’t solve an urgent matter immediately this might mean that people will have their power supply down.”
To the many inquiries on the matter, Rosário noted, “The only way to better coordinate the roadworks is to reduce the pace of development, but in the end, we are all pushing [for] this to be done. Only if [we] drastically reduce the pace of the ongoing constructions will we be able to reduce the number of roadworks happening.”
LRT’s West line to move forward
Another confirmation made yesterday in the presentation of the 10-year plan for transport 2021-2030 is that the so-called West line of the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system linking Barra to the Border Gate through the inner harbor is moving forward.
The government stated that this project will have a major future impact on the use of the system.
According to Lam, the line will have a total length of six kilometers and stations every 500 meters, potentially being accountable for the transportation of some 250,000 people. However, he noted that for the time being this is only a preliminary plan.
Lam later added that the priority is building the link between the Border Gate and the Lam Mau Docks, a section that will have a length of around two kilometers: one-third of the whole line.
