Older accounts of the crossing quote the fare to the cent, name the tower on the Kowloon side the Victoria Clock Tower, call Victoria Harbour one of the deepest in the world, and describe a Central pier the service no longer uses. The tower is the Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower, erected in 1915. The harbour's maintained fairways are about 11 m deep and its deepest point about 43 m, which is not close to the deepest anywhere. And the Star Ferry left Edinburgh Place for Central Pier No. 7 on 12 November 2006. The larger thing those accounts could not know is that the service has been loss-making for most of the past decade, and that the company's own published outlook is headed "Outlook is Bleak".
How old the service is, and why no single figure works
The operator's own history dates the origins to 1880, when Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala began a cross-harbour service with a steamboat called the Morning Star. The undertaking was first known as the Kowloon Ferry Company and became a public company in May 1898. The name comes from the vessels, which all carried the word Star.
But the same company's site also carries the formulation "serving Victoria Harbour since 1888", and both figures are its own. A round age is therefore best avoided altogether: the 1880 beginnings and the 1898 incorporation are the two dates that can be given without picking a side in a disagreement the operator has with itself.
The crossing
Two franchised routes run: Tsim Sha Tsui to Central and Tsim Sha Tsui to Wan Chai. At the level of service recorded in the official review, eight vessels worked the two routes, with Central to Tsim Sha Tsui every six to twelve minutes from 06:30 to 23:30 and Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui every eight to twenty minutes from 07:20 to 23:00, and schedule adherence measured at 100 per cent in a transport department survey. Those are the figures as recorded then rather than a current timetable.
The upper deck is the first-class ticket. The lower deck sits closer to the water and to the engines, which some passengers prefer and which is the reason the distinction has survived.
The Clock Tower, and the pier that went
The tower on the Tsim Sha Tsui side is the Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower, as the heritage office styles it, and commonly the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower. It was erected in 1915 with the Kowloon terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway and began providing a time service in March 1921. The terminus itself was demolished in 1978; the tower remained and was declared a monument in 1990 for its historical interest and architectural merit. It is the surviving fragment of the railway head from which trains ran to Canton and, by connection, across Eurasia. "Victoria Clock Tower" names a different structure, in Central, demolished long ago.
On the Hong Kong side the service moved. With effect from 12 November 2006 the Central berths shifted from the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier to Central Pier No. 7, and to the western berth of Pier No. 8 for other services, to tie in with the third phase of the Central reclamation. Timetables were unchanged, and two bus routes moved their Central terminus the same day. The clearing of the Edinburgh Place pier drew substantial public objection at the time; the official record covers the relocation and its reason rather than the demolition, so that episode is better described than asserted.
The harbour is not one of the deepest in the world
The official figures contradict the claim outright. The major harbour fairways are maintained at about 11 m; the deepest point, at Lei Yue Mun, is about 43 m; the shallowest fairway, at Yau Ma Tei, is about 7 m. Maintenance dredging keeps the depth sufficient for ocean-going vessels. Those figures are official but were published in 1999, and no more recent official bathymetry could be found.
The description that survives checking is a sheltered natural deep-water harbour maintained by dredging — which explains more than the superlative did, because it accounts for both the dredging and the pressure to reclaim.
Reclamation, and the law that restrains it
The Protection of the Harbour Ordinance was passed in June 1997. It declares the harbour to be protected and preserved as a special public asset and a natural heritage of Hong Kong people, and establishes a presumption against reclamation. Its coverage was extended from the central harbour to the whole harbour in December 1999.
The Court of Final Appeal held in January 2004 that the presumption can be rebutted only by an overriding public need: the need must be compelling and present, there must be no reasonable alternative, the reclamation must go no further than necessary, and the decision-maker must have cogent and convincing materials.
The law then changed on 16 May 2025. The amending ordinance creates a streamlined route by which the Financial Secretary may exempt qualifying harbour-enhancement and non-permanent reclamations from the presumption. Everything else remains subject to it, now with three statutory considerations and new procedural steps — assess the overriding public need, publish the assessment for public comment, and submit it with the comments to the Chief Executive in Council. The right to seek judicial review is unchanged, and government stated it has no plans for large-scale harbour reclamation for housing, commercial or industrial land. Nothing written before 2025 can describe this correctly.
What is visible from the deck
The Bank of China Tower — 367.4 m, 72 floors above ground, completed in 1990 — is the triangular-prism tower with external bracing, and the one older accounts mean by "the distinctive, narrow Bank of China building". The looseness matters, because a separate and older Bank of China Building stands nearby in Central.
The HSBC Main Building, formally the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation headquarters, stands at 178.8 m over 43 floors and was completed in 1985. "The Shanghai Bank" is not its name. Harbour City is the Tsim Sha Tsui complex on Canton Road, comprising Ocean Terminal, Ocean Centre and the Gateway Arcade with associated towers.
A Symphony of Lights runs nightly at 20:00 and has done since 2004, with 43 buildings and two attractions taking part. It is free and needs no ticket. The official viewing points are the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront outside the Cultural Centre, the Avenue of Stars, the Golden Bauhinia Square promenade in Wan Chai, and sightseeing ferries on the harbour itself. In December 2017 the show took a new direction, with a score recorded by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra blending Chinese instruments such as the erhu with contemporary sound. It is suspended if a tropical cyclone warning signal 3 or above, or a red or black rainstorm warning, is in force at or after 15:00 on the day.
Whether the service survives
This is the part no older account could have had, and it is better stated plainly than softened.
Losses were recorded every year from 2018, rising from about HK$2.7 million in 2018 to about HK$37.2 million in 2021 — a loss margin of 57.3 per cent in that year. Accumulated losses exceeded total assets, and the company was relying on debt to run its franchised services. Farebox revenue fell about 47 per cent between 2018 and 2021. Average daily patronage fell from 53,900 in 2018 to 26,200 in 2021, and stood at 10,700 in March 2022.
Government support exists, and it is structural rather than a payment per passenger: pandemic-era grants, reimbursement of part of the revenue forgone on free travel for elderly passengers through pier rental reimbursement and vessel licence fee waivers, the assignment of several piers for the company to manage with commercial sub-letting permitted, and continuing support for pier maintenance.
On its own 2025 figures the company reported net debt above HK$73 million, negative equity of about HK$95 million, a franchise profit above HK$5 million, and farebox revenue covering only 62 per cent of operating costs. Its outlook section is headed "Outlook is Bleak", citing uncertainty over visitor arrivals, the effect of a railway cross-harbour extension on the Wan Chai route specifically, slow recovery in non-fare revenue, and rising payroll and maintenance costs. The initiatives it lists are a full electronic payment system, a green ferry project, research on pier revitalisation, and a fleet re-engining programme.
A fare increase smaller than the one applied for was approved by the Chief Executive in Council and takes effect on 25 January 2027, with the amendment going to the legislature for negative vetting. Government put the service as still substantially cheaper than the railway or franchised buses for a cross-harbour journey, and a legislator put the visitor share of passengers at about 60 per cent.
Two routes were lost earlier and are often misremembered as a recent cut: the Hung Hom services to Central and to Wan Chai ceased from 1 April 2011, when the licences expired after two tender invitations drew no bids. Neither of the current routes is suspended — the suspension notices on the operator's site are typhoon notices, not withdrawals.
Dates to watch
25 January 2027 is the firm one: the fare increase takes effect on both routes. The fleet re-engining programme is under way alongside it.
On the waterfront, promenades along Victoria Harbour are to be extended to about 34 km across both sides by 2028, with Kowloon's share about 16 km, and a consultation on proposals from the East Kowloon harbourfront trail study is targeted for 2027. Administrative guidelines under the 2025 harbour amendment were to be published within two months of 16 May 2025 and govern which harbourfront works may proceed, so they are worth checking before anything is said about what is permitted.
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