As an MTR project resumes, does it mean sinking safety standards in Hong Kong?

Corporate governance of the MTR has been poor, and is deteriorating. Following the announcement in 2014 of the delay in the Express Rail Link project then the cost overrun, construction scandals have cropped up regularly and are getting out of hand. A derailment occurred during the testing of the high-speed railway and water seepage was found at the West Kowloon terminus. Delays often roil train services due to the failure of the signalling system.

The Sha Tin-Central rail link scandal broke earlier this year. It started with a revelation that corners – and steel bars – had been cut in the construction work on platforms beneath Hung Hom station. As controversy mounted, the chief executive formed a commission of inquiry led by a former non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal.

A project director and three general managers had to exit MTR. CEO Lincoln Leong Kwok-kuen and chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang resigned. The problems did not stop there: MTR admitted that more than 130 locations along the rail line, including those near the construction site for Exhibition Centre station, were sinking.

Meanwhile, the general public has high hopes that the government will follow up on the series of MTR scandals. On September 28, the authorities announced that works on Exhibition Centre would resume and that acceptable levels of subsidence would be relaxed for the Sha Tin-Central rail link project, from the range of 10mm to 25mm to a new range of 20mm to 95mm.