Beacon Hill Tunnel

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Beacon Hill Tunnel (Traditional Chinese: 畢架山隧道) is a tunnel on the original KCR route from Kowloon to Canton; linking Kowloon Tong to its south and Sha Tin to its north. It is also Tunnel No. 2 as it is the second tunnel trains would have encountered after leaving Kowloon.

A team of surveyors were commisioned to survey the route for the KCR British Section in 1905. Two routes have been proposed: 1) Construction of a Tunnel 2.4km long through Beacon Hill then following the west coast of Tolo Harbour; 2)Routing through Western New Territories and Castle Peak Bay. Although option 2 is less technically challenging, the route is too long and goes through less economically active areas; therefore option 1 was selected. Works on the 35.4km railway to the boarder started early 1906.

the tunnel opened with rest of the line in Oct 1910, together with 4 smaller tunnels. It accommodated a single standard track with a standard gauge of 1435mm.

A double tracked, electrified tunnel was built to the immediate west of the original one as part of a modernisation plan starting in 1978. The original tunnel was closed upon completion of the new tunnel. It is now occupied by town gas facilities.