Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário said yesterday that the cross-platform interchange connecting the current Light Rail Transit (LRT) Taipa-Cotai section and Union Hospital Station on the future Seac Pai Van section can open on September 1, enabling passengers to take trains on the Taipa-Cotai section from the Macao Union Hospital through an indoor corridor.
Rosário made the remarks when replying to oral interpellations by lawmakers during a plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday.
The 1.6-kilometre-long Seac Pai Van section, which is scheduled to open at the end of this year, will connect the Macao Union Hospital in Cotai and Coloane’s sprawling Seac Pai Van public housing estate.
The LRT Seac Pai Van section only has two stations – one outside the Macao Union Hospital and the other one outside the Seac Pai Van public housing estate.
The two stations are officially known as Union Hospital Station and Seac Pai Van Station.
The cross-platform interchange that is slated to open next month has been built on the LRT Taipa-Cotai section, with an indoor corridor connected to its nearby Union Hospital Station, enabling LRT passengers to change trains between the Taipa-Cotai section and the Seac Pai Van section, after the latter starts operating.
Next month’s scheduled opening of the cross-platform interchange, announced by Rosário yesterday, will first enable those from the large-scale hospital to walk from Union Hospital Station, through an indoor corridor, to the interchange to catch a train on the Taipa-Cotai section.
Rosário said yesterday that the opening of the cross-platform interchange and its adjacent Union Hospital Station would help boost the number of LRT passengers.
The policy secretary also reaffirmed that both the LRT Seac Pai Van section and Cotai-Hengqin section are scheduled to open at the end of this year.
These two photos taken in May show the then newly completed cross-platform interchange on the LRT Taipa-Cotai section (left) and its indoor corridor connected to the nearby Union Hospital Station on the Seac Pai Van section.– Photos: DSOP
