Hong Kong's MTRC fined HK$19.2 million for 5-hour service disruption on Tseung Kwan O Line

HKFP

6 days ago

Hong Kong's railway operator, the MTR Corporation (MTRC), will have to pay HK$19.2 million in fines for the five-hour service disruption on its Tseung Kwan O Line last week, the city's transport minister has said.
Mable Chan, secretary for transport and logistics, also said on Monday that the MTRC would provide 50 per cent fare concessions for a day due to the service failure on Thursday and two similar events on another line earlier this year, under a 'service performance rebate' mechanism.
Train service on the Tseung Kwan O Line was severely disrupted during rush hour, including a five-hour halt in the cross-harbour section between North Point and Yau Tong stations, due to a 'power supply disruption,' according to the MTRC.
The incident followed two separate service disruptions on the East Rail Line in February and April that involved malfunctioning engineering trains.
During a special Legislative Council (LegCo) subcommittee meeting on Monday, Chan said the government had demanded that the MTRC conduct a 'comprehensive and systematic' review of its train systems to strengthen the risk assessment and resilience of its services.
'I hope the MTRC can be ahead of any problems instead of having to follow up and react to them after they occur,' Chan told lawmakers in Cantonese.
'The string of [service delay] incidents has shown that the MTRC's repair and maintenance systems indeed have room for improvement,' she added.
Chan also said she demanded that the MTRC submit an investigative report on the Thursday incident to the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department within a month.
Jeny Yeung, the MTRC's managing director for Hong Kong transport services, said at the same LegCo meeting that the company's preliminary investigation suggested that failures in some components of the overhead cables were the cause of the incident.
Cheris Lee, chief of operating and metro segment at the MTRC, said the company's engineers had located a misalignment of the 'jumper wire,' a device that connects electric circuits to trains, which they believed to be the cause of the power supply failure.
Yeung said the company would also replace outdated information systems of four lines – the Tseung Kwan O Line, the Kwun Tong Line, the Tsuen Wan Line, and the Island Line – in the next few years.
The Tseung Kwan O line was suspended at 5.14pm on Thursday. Service was partially resumed at around 8.40pm and was only fully restored at 10.33pm, according to the MTRC.
Under the service performance rebate mechanism, which was revamped in 2023, the MTRC has to pay HK$9.6 million for any delay of up to four hours during rush hour, and any additional hour of delay will cost the company an extra HK$4.8 million. The money will be refunded to passengers through a fare promotion.