MTR services halted as second glitch in 24 hours forces line closure

The MTR today encountered fresh problems when a line had to be closed due to technical glitches for the second time in 24 hours.

Services on the Eastern Line from Lo Wu to Hung Hom were halted for around seven minutes due to signalling problems, an MTR spokesman said, causing staff to close Fanling station for safety reasons.

Passengers complained that they were forced to wait for a train, for more than 10 minutes in some cases, after services were temporarily halted from around 7.40pm.

MTR infrastructure general manager Terry Wong Wing-kin apologised on a radio show for the incident. He said the company had been investigating the problems and that it was unclear whether they were related to a service halt yesterday.

The MTR East Rail Line came to a halt for 36 minutes yesterday morning after the train tracking system at the central control centre stopped working. Six trains were stopped between stations for up to 20 minutes during the disruption.

Station platforms grew crowded after all trains were stopped from 8.09am. They started running again at 8.45am but some services were still affected as late as 11am.

Lawmakers crticised the delay in notifying the media and public, with news of the disruption only released at around 8.30am.