Only two of the KCRC's five directors will serve on the board of the company to be formed by the merger of its rail operations with those of the MTR Corporation - and in positions lower than they currently hold.
MTR Corp chairman Raymond Chien Kuo-fung and chief executive Chow Chung-kong will occupy the same positions on the new company's board.
Dr Chien and Mr Chow held their hands high together in a victory posture after the names of the directors were announced yesterday.
'We will become one company, one team. All workers of the two railway companies are high-calibre professionals who will co-operate fully with each other,' Dr Chien said.
But the union representing non-frontline Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation staff was disheartened by the news, fearing the government-owned corporation would lose more senior positions to the partly privatised MTR Corp.
KCRC senior directors Li Yun-tai and Lee Kang-kuen will become deputy directors of the merged operation. Fellow directors Daniel Lam Chun, Lawrence Li and Mimi Cunningham will not serve on the new board, but all seven MTR Corp directors will stay in their seats.
