Hong Kong’s MTR to ease rules on swearing and filming (but eating on trains still forbidden)

Rail operator plans to maintain hard line on eating, drinking and carrying oversized luggage, saying some passengers carry replica swords and refrigerators

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Drinking as well as eating and carrying oversized baggage will remain no-nos on MTR trains. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 12:15pm, 20 Apr 2017Updated: 11:16pm, 20 Apr 2017

Hong Kong’s railway operator is proposing to show more tolerance towards passengers swearing on trains and lift a ban on filming with mobile phones under a long-overdue review of its decades-old by-laws.

Sources said the MTR Corporation’s plans were aimed at updating or scrapping obsolete rules to keep up with the times and “address the reality” as trains become more crowded due to both local commuters’ demands and the influx of mainland visitors.

At the same time, the MTR wants to maintain its ban on eating, drinking and carrying oversized luggage on trains, although exceptions will be made in special circumstances for passengers who genuinely need to hydrate while commuting.

The city’s biggest public transport operator is due to submit a paper to the Legislative Council soon outlining its proposed changes after sounding out lawmakers and frontline staff.

The railway firm has not reviewed its by-laws since they were combined with those of the former Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation when the two operators merged in 2007.

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