Latest news with #MTRCorporation
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's MTR Corporation opens the Island line in 1985 — from the SCMP archive
This article was first published on June 1, 1985. Advertisement by Francis Li and Louis Liu Massive roll-up as new line opens Huge crowds rolled up to try out the Mass Transit Railway Island line which went into operation without a hitch on Friday (May 31, 1985). An MTR Corporation spokesman said on Friday night more than 136,000 people travelled on the line between Chai Wan and Admiralty stations in the first five hours after it opened for commuters at 2pm. Rostered station staff helped by volunteer MTR workers turned out in force to help passengers, many of whom were first-time MTR commuters. Advertisement The Causeway Bay station was so busy that many commuters said they had to queue for nearly 20 minutes for a ticket, well before the evening rush hours.
RTHK
6 days ago
- Business
- RTHK
Tien not on board with MTR over need for shutdown
Tien not on board with MTR over need for shutdown Michael Tien said he didn't think it was necessary to shut down the entire Tseung Kwan O line on Thursday. File photo: RTHK A lawmaker has questioned why the MTR Corporation had to shut down the entire Tseung Kwan O line last Thursday, when power and signalling failures halted services for five hours starting from the evening rush hour. Roundtable's Michael Tien quoted the railway company as telling him that it couldn't switch to manual operation and use the one available track for trains to go both ways because the section was still running on the old signalling system. Tien, who chaired the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation before the merger of the two rail companies, said he didn't find the explanation acceptable. "When you look at the past two, three years, service disruptions didn't affect the whole Tsuen Wan and Island lines – with both of them also running on the old signalling system," he told RTHK's In the Chamber programme. "They just switched to manual. "The design is that, once the automated system isn't safe enough, you can go manual so that the trains would go at a slower speed." The government has said the MTR has to spend more than HK$19 million on passenger rebates because of the service disruption. As a result of the Tseung Kwan O stoppage and two others earlier in February and April, the MTRC will be having a day of half-priced fares on a Saturday or Sunday. Tien said he found it "a bit funny" that passengers across the entire network would benefit, when it was mostly those taking the Tseung Kwan O line trains that bore the brunt of the shutdown.
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's MTR Corp must tackle ‘inadequacies' in contingency planning: John Lee
Hong Kong's leader has criticised the MTR Corporation's 'inadequacies' in emergency responses and contingency planning following several recent blunders, including a five-hour suspension in rail services on the Tseung Kwan O line last week Speaking to the media before a meeting with the key decision-making Executive Council on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu also laid down for areas that the rail giant needed to improve on, following its third disruption in four months caused by technical failure. The rail giant, which is nearly 75 per cent owned by the government, was slapped with a HK$19.2 million (US$2.4 million) fine on Monday, which was equivalent to a day of half-price fares that would be rebated to passengers. But Lee said the corporation needed to do more to prevent such incidents in the future. '[Last Thursday's] incident, together with two other incidents that happened this year, reflects that there are inadequacies in the emergency response and contingency planning of the MTR Corporation,' he said. 'Prevention is better than rectification, so [the] MTR Corporation has to comprehensively work in those directions,' he said.
RTHK
7 days ago
- Business
- RTHK
MTRC told to work on contingency planning and response
MTRC told to work on contingency planning and response The Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday the MTR Corporation has to enhance its contingency planning and responses in the wake of three service disruptions so far this year. These include the more than five-hour suspension along the entire Tseung Kwan O line on Thursday that began with the evening rush hour. Ahead of the Executive Council meeting, Lee said the stoppages show there are inadequacies in the operator's response and contingency planning. "We have been focusing on rectification, in which we have systems to impose punishment on MTRC," he said. "But I think it is more important to focus on prevention so that there will be [no more disruptions]. "And we should also focus on the responses when there are, unfortunately, such incidents." Lee said he has requested the MTRC carry out a comprehensive and systemic review to enhance operations. The subway operator, he said, also needs to strengthen its contingency capabilities and responses by conducting drills and setting up a team dedicated to coping with emergencies. Lee went on to say the MTRC has to improve on its arrangements for alternative transport during service suspensions and come up with a timely information dissemination system. The Transport and Logistics Bureau, Transport Department and Electrical and Mechanical Services Department have to lead and guide the operator in implementing its five-year plan in enhancing management and maintenance of its railway assets, he said. The Transport and Logistics Bureau has told the railway giant to submit a report regarding last week's incident within a month. There were two other disruptions in February and April. The operator will offer a HK$19.2 million in compensation to the public over the raft of incidents, as well as give commuters a day of half-price discounts on fares for last week's disruption.
HKFP
26-05-2025
- Business
- HKFP
Hong Kong's MTRC fined HK$19.2 million for 5-hour service disruption on Tseung Kwan O Line
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.
