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HongKong> Opinion> Content
Monday, October 22, 2018, 11:15
MTR owes its millions of passengers better performance
By Sophie He
Monday, October 22, 2018, 11:15 By Sophie He

A malfunction in the MTR’s signaling system last Tuesday sent Hong Kong’s commute traffic into chaos during the morning rush hour.

Mass Transit Railway Corporation, the city’s sole rail operator, said passengers were affected by delays on four lines: Island, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong and Tseung Kwan O. The delays started about 6:30 am and were resolved by noon, MTRC said. The MTR transports an average of 4.7 million people every weekday.

People on their way to work complained that they waited an hour or longer in the MTR stations, and were advised to use other forms of transportation. This, of course, caused a ripple effect across the city and led to huge traffic jams on roads.

I live in Tai Wai and left my home at 9 am for a business appointment in Admiralty. Luckily, the East Rail Line was operating normally, and I didn’t know there was a severe delay in major MTR lines until I arrived at Tai Wai Station. So I decided to take the bus from Hung Hom to Admiralty. I only realized how bad it was when I arrived at Hung Hom Station.

There were long queues in front of every bus outside Hung Hom Station. In fact, the queues were so long people had to queue up for buses inside of the station. I had to cancel my appointment, as my friend who lives on Hong Kong Island told me she waited for one hour for taxi and her taxi driver told her it would take more than an hour to drive her from the Eastern District to Central.

I was very disappointed with the MTR, just like most Hong Kong residents; I like this company and I certainly expected more from it.

When I came to Hong Kong the first time 10 years ago for graduate school, I found the MTR so amazing. Although expensive, I thought it was fast, clean, safe and always on time. I bragged about this amazing MTR system in Hong Kong to my friends on the mainland, and the first sentence I learned in Cantonese was “please stand back from the train door”, as it was repeatedly broadcast in all MTR stations.

But in a time like this, it really makes you wonder whether our MTR is that good. It was not the first time we heard about MTR’s signaling system failure in the past 12 months or so, although it is the first time that the problem occurred on four of its lines.

My friends from the mainland have been complaining to me that they find the city’s subway cars are “too old” and the fares too expensive compared with what they pay for subways in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. I was very defensive about the MTR; I told my friends that “old” is not a problem as long as they are working properly, and you are paying for the forever on-time and great services with your MTR fare.

But deep down, I know our MTR can do better. On every hot summer day when I stand on the platform and wait for a train in Kowloon Tong or Tai Wai station, I wish the trains could be more frequent. I know that is not impossible to do; I’ve traveled to Moscow and witnessed its magnificent two-train per minute subway network. I wish there were more MTR lines in the city, as there are still so many places that can’t be reached by subway.

The subway and railway lines are arteries of the city, particularly for the districts that rely heavily on MTR, like Tseung Kwan O. It is also a name card of the city; we always talk about how we are introducing MTR’s business model into the mainland and to the rest of the world, and for the fare price we pay for our daily commute, is it too much to ask the MTR to do a better job? 

I think the MTR should not be complacent; it has to think about how to improve itself and its services every day just to stay competitive. At least, it should think about how to avoid the signaling problem from occurring again, and put ideas into action.

The author is business editor for China Daily Hong Kong.


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