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SCMP Reporter

MTR breakdown forces thousands into taxis, buses
Thousands of commuters were thrown into chaos for hours last night when damage to an  overhead power cable brought MTR train services to a halt from 7.30pm.
The breakdown on the Kwun Tong line caused widespread delays and disruption on the rail network and led to bus stations and taxi queues being jammed by passengers seeking a way home from work.
At one point, some 300 passengers had to be evacuated after being trapped for 10 minutes in a train approaching Yau Tong  station.
Some angry commuters accused the rail company of lacking a contingency plan, while others who had sat for an hour in trains for a journey that usually took just a few minutes complained they had not been given enough information.
Emergency repair work was carried out but services did not return to normal until 11.10pm.
The Transport Department said it had asked the MTR Corp for an investigation report. The company apologised to commuters and promised to review the notification system.
The trouble began at about 7.30pm when a faulty power system brought three trains, two of them loaded, to a halt between Lam Tin  and Tiu Keng Leng  stations on the Kwun Tong line. The problem was fixed quickly and two of the affected trains resumed their journey.
But the third train, carrying 300 passengers, was hit by another power failure as it neared Yau Tong station and came to a standstill.
Some of the 300 passengers being evacuated complained that the air-conditioning and lights were off.
Services elsewhere in Kowloon were also seriously disrupted.
Some passengers who took the MTR from Mong Kok to Kwun Tong complained there was no announcement broadcast in the station or train compartments. One said: 'The train ran very slowly. It took over an hour to go to Kwun Tong from Mong Kok.'
Another said: 'There was no special announcement. The broadcast just said there could be some delay. Not until we arrived in Kwun Tong station was there a broadcast about service suspension and we were told we had to get off at Kwun Tong.'
At one stage about 1,000 people were queueing at a bus stop outside Yau Tong station.
MTR head of operations Wilfred Lau Cheuk-man  said: 'We shall investigate the incident and will submit a report to the authorities.' An initial check had found that a section of cable 150 metres away from Yau Tong station  had been damaged and engineers were working to fix it, he said.
Yesterday's MTR chaos was the worst since August, when a fire forced 180 passengers on a train to walk 250 metres through an underground tunnel to reach Heng Fa Chuen station.
In the August incident, a short circuit hit the power supply to the train, on the Island Line between Shau Kei Wan and Heng Fa Chuen, and a fuse in the overhead cable blew at about 9.30pm.



Chaos as electrical fault  cripples Kwun Tong line