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More disruptions likely as trains are pulled from service after inspections reveal fractures in bolts

East Rail passengers have been warned to leave home early today in case of delays after fractures were found for the first time in the bolts of major components, pointing to flaws in the trains' design.

The time between services was lengthened from 21/2  minutes to three minutes yesterday after two trains were pulled from service because of the flaws.

Frequency is expected to be lower today again but KCRC acting chief executive Samuel Lai Man-hay  insisted the railway was still safe and the likelihood of a severe disruption was low.

The KCRC, the Transport Department and bus operators are nevertheless prepared to mobilise more than 200 buses  in case of serious delays.

Inspectors  yesterday found cracks, some more than 50mm wide, behind the bolts of four major equipment cases. Previously fractures had only been seen in the welds of mounting equipment.

'After analysis of data provided by the manufacturer, we believe the design of that mounting configuration is not desirable, more stress is induced on that particular part than the others,' Mr Lai said.

He put a positive spin on it, however, saying  the number of defects found in the daily checks was diminishing. 'Out of 148 train parts we inspected, six were found faulty,' he said. 'The percentage is dropping to our surprise, but as we extend the scope of our inspection, we don't rule out that more fractured parts may surface.'

Chairman of the inspection team Edmund Leung Kwong-ho  said the equipment case where the cracked bolts were found was the only part with such a configuration among 13 major types of components.

The team finished inspecting all 57 equipment cases yesterday and no other faults were found.

He said the discovery of the cracked bolts did not indicate the problem facing the railway - which has been checking equipment amid a row over failure to report an earlier discovery of cracked welds - had grown.

While the cracks were larger than those found to date, Mr Leung said they still fell far below the threshold of 68mm where trains had to be suspended from service.

Inspection of all 1,465 major train parts, scheduled to be finished by today, will be delayed as more areas need to be checked. East Rail has borrowed staff from West Rail to speed up the job.

But a transport expert at Polytechnic University, Hung Wing-tat,  said  if the work goes on for 'another week, temporary transfer of manpower may be able to handle that, but if it lasts for two weeks, or even one month, efficiency   will  deteriorate'.

KCRC workers union chairman Ko Wing-tat said frontline staff were  required to work extra hours to handle the heavy workload and urged  management to be lenient with staff who made mistakes under  pressure, referring to the driver who forgot to close the doors before starting a train  on Wednesday.



East Rail commuters warned to leave early