A Hong Kong lawmaker has urged the government to probe an MTR disruption on the Tseung Kwan O line, following train delays lasting three hours during rush hour on Friday morning.
Legislator Stanley Li said the incident caused major inconvenience to residents in Tseung Kwan O, who rely on the MTR to commute out of the district, as they were leaving for work.
He said Friday morning’s malfunction came after a similar disruption in May, also on the Tseung Kwan O line. A power failure on May 22 caused train services to halt completely for more than three hours during the evening rush hour period.
“I believe it is not acceptable to Hong Kong residents that these incidents are happening one after another,” said Li, a lawmaker from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB).
In a media statement, the MTR Corporation (MTRC) said signalling equipment malfunctioned near the North Point MTR stop along the Tseung Kwan O line at around 7.20am on Friday.
Trains ran at reduced speeds, causing journey times from North Point MTR Station to Po Lam and LOHAS Park stations to increase by five to eight minutes.
Photos on social media showed crowded train platforms and a line of people extending into PopCorn mall, a shopping centre connected to Tseung Kwan O MTR station.
Normal service resumed at close to 10.30am.
Lawmaker Michael Tien attributed signalling malfunctions to analogue systems still used by some train lines.
He said the MTRC was upgrading the systems for the city’s older train lines – the Island, Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan, and Tseung Kwan O lines – but the Tseung Kwan O line’s upgrades would take place last, only to be completed in 2029 or 2030.
In May, train service on the Tseung Kwan O line was interrupted for around five hours starting during the evening rush hour. For the first three hours, service was completely halted on the line before gradually resuming between some stops.
The MTRC was fined HK$19.2 million over the delay as part of a mechanism that forces it to pay for service failures longer than 31 minutes.
The money is refunded to passengers through a fare promotion. When fines accumulate to HK$25 million, the MTR Corporation offers a “Thank You Day” during which commuters pay only half-price fares. The last “Thank You Day” was held on Sunday.
