MTR Corp must crack down on online vendors trading at stations
Hopefully your report ('Online shoppers turn MTR into a marketplace', December 5), will force MTR management to finally acknowledge the legitimate complaints of passengers with regard to the rampant fare dodging carried out at its stations in full view of its staff.
Most telling was the comment from one online vendor, 'I'll go meet them (the purchasers) as long as I don't have to leave the MTR station, so I don't have to pay much for transport.'
I have been complaining for ages about the activities of online vendors, and other individuals exchanging goods, causing obstruction at busy stations, in particular on the narrow passageway at the Tsim Sha Tsui concourse and beside the turnstiles at Central and that MTR staff are doing nothing to ensure that these entrepreneurs pay full fares.
Staff at the MTR customer service counters are too busy to deal with these fare dodgers but they should have a system in place to call for back up.
While regular commuters are most happy to subsidise the fares of the elderly, the disabled and the deprived, we strongly object to underwriting commercial activities. Also the presence of so many people loitering near busy turnstiles is indicative of a lax attitude on the part of the MTR Corporation towards crowd control.
The next time the MTR proposes a fare hike, members of the Legco Transport Panel should ask for an estimate of the losses incurred through this form of fare dodging and demand that MTR staff politely but firmly insist that commuters go through the turnstiles and conduct their business outside the paid area in compliance with its existing regulations.