Opinion | Here's to the MTR, the unsung hero of Occupy Central
With key arteries in our city blocked, the subterranean railway has come to the rescue
When the streets are clear again and the dust has finished settling, I have no doubt our community will spend many months - even years - debating the rights and wrongs, the ins and outs, of Occupy Central. Who knows, academics may even turn study of it into a degree programme. Perhaps yellow umbrellas will be a requirement at graduation ceremonies.
The arguments about Occupy's long-term implications will rumble on in newspaper columns and on talk shows until complete boredom sets in (if it hasn't already).
But one conclusion I think we can all agree on right now is that the MTR has saved Hong Kong's bacon. With so many main traffic arteries blocked, alternative routes have been overloaded and commuters have sought workarounds. By far the most popular has been our very own Mass Transit Railway.
Can't get a taxi to that important meeting in Central? Hop on the train. It's crowded but service frequency has been stepped up. You will get on, and you will get there in time.
The MTR Corporation has been under the cosh quite a lot recently, not altogether fairly in some cases. For example, I doubt we have heard even close to the full story about the delays and cost overruns of the Express Rail link to Guangzhou.
Surely the expert panel chaired by Mr Justice Michael Hartmann will get us answers to some key questions such as why the terminus is in West Kowloon instead of somewhere more logical like the New Territories, who set such an aggressive target date for completion (and whether there was political pressure to do so) and who decided not to carry out a thorough site investigation before work began.
Even responsibility for the delays of the four extensions to the existing network may not rest solely with the MTR Corp. Why did all four have to happen at once? Was it not possible to prioritise them, or would that have meant making some (politically) tough decisions?