Yau Ma Tei, formerly called Waterloo after Waterloo Road, is an MTRstation located in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon. It is served by the Kwun Tong Line and the Tsuen Wan Line. The station opened in 1979 and was renamed as Yau Ma Tei on 31 May 1985 along with Argyle and Chater. Yau Ma Tei is an interchange station, even though the platforms are not designed for cross-platform interchange. After the Kwun Tong Line has been extended to Whampoa, it is used by northbound passengers on one line to change to southbound trains on the other line. This station is used by many students during commuting hours, since it is in the vicinity of many large schools. The station's livery colour is a light grey. Red, white, and blue stripes, which is located prominently adorned the station walls until they were removed as part of renovation works in 2005 which also saw the original Helvetica typeface, used in station name signs, replaced by Myriad.
History
On 16 December 1979, Modified Initial System was extended from Shek Kip Mei to Tsim Sha Tsui station. However, Yau Ma Tei station was opened at a later 22 December that year as an infill station. When the station was first opened, only upper level platform was in use. Two weeks before Tsuen Wan Line opened, on 26 April 1982, MTR Corporation split the Modified Initial System into Kwun Tong Line and Tsuen Wan Line, in order to let passengers to get use to transfer at Mong Kong station. In the same day, the lower level platform was put into use. Tsuen Wan Line was fully operational on 17 May 1982. Kwun Tong Line was extended to Whampoa station on 23 October 2016.
Station layout
From the scissor crossing after Whampoa terminus to north of Yau Ma Tei, the Kwun Tong Line drives on the right side of the tunnel, as opposed to almost everywhere else in the MTR, where the driving direction is usually on the left. The difference in driving directionality is due to the track layout between Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok stations. The Kwun Tong line extension towards Whampoa station via Ho Man Tin opened on 23 October 2016. In preparation, the numbers of the Kwun Tong Line platforms were swapped starting on 11 June 2016, and platform 4 became alighting-only from 21 August 2016. After the opening of the Kwun Tong line extension, Yau Ma Tei became an interchange station between the Kwun Tong Line and the Tsuen Wan Line, with each line using platforms on a different level.
