Central () is an MTR station located in the Central area of Hong Kong Island. The station's livery is firebrick red but brown on the platforms. The station is the southern terminus of the , a stop on the , and connects to Hong Kong station, which serves the and the . The station was originally named Chater station. It was initially conceived to cater for 330,000 passengers daily and was planned to be long – one of the longest stations in the world. More than 200,000 passengers use this station daily. The longest distance between two exits is approximately 700m. History Early plans Central station was included in the Hong Kong Mass Transport Study, a system proposed in September 1967. Together with Western Market station, it was to serve as an interchange station of the and Island line. In the recommended system, the Tsuen Wan line would end at . The station was originally planned to be located under Des Voeux Road Central between Jubilee Street and Pedder Street. In 1970, in the Hong Kong Mass Transit Further Studies, the station was proposed as two separate but connected stations: Chater station () under Chater Road and Pedder station () under Pedder Street), which would serve the Kong Kow line (now Tsuen Wan line) and Island line respectively. Modified Initial System and opening The station first opened as Chater station on 12 February 1980 as the terminus of the Modified Initial System (MIS, now Kwun Tong line). Only a portion of the station came into operation as the Island line had not been opened yet. The station was named Chater in English but 中環 (Central) in Chinese. This would be misleading as many thought that the Chinese name would be 遮打, a transliteration and the Chinese name of the namesake road. When the Island line between Admiralty and Chai Wan opened on 31 May 1985, MTR renamed Chater to Central together with the renaming of some other stations on the Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan lines. Construction for the Island line was carried out in early 1983 and connected the new platforms with the original structure. The Island line began servicing Central on 23 May 1986 when it was extended beyond Admiralty to Sheung Wan and the Island line platforms came into service. Passageway to Hong Kong station One component of the Airport Core Programme between 1991 and 1998 was