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Opinion | Hong Kong MTR’s troubles are rooted in its identity crisis
- Is it a private company first or a public service provider? A rail operator or property developer?
- The train crash last week, the latest in a string of scandals, indicates massive governance failure and brings home the need for a complete overhaul
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Why you can trust SCMP
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The MTR’s test run of the new signalling system last week that resulted in two trains colliding was a fiasco – no other word does justice to what happened. Not only did the new system fail the test, all the backup systems specifically designed to ensure there could never be a collision also failed. Fortunately at the last moment, one of the drivers saw what was happening and applied the brakes. This reduced the impact or more serious damage and injury that might have been caused. So much for the superiority of artificial intelligence.
The chaotic scenes, in the following two days, as thousands of commuters struggled to get to and from work using the truncated service, were an embarrassment to Hong Kong.
If this had been a one-off incident, most people would probably have just shrugged and moved on. But it was merely the latest in a long string of serious episodes. The extensive delays and/or cost overruns that affected each of the four completed network expansion projects – South Island Line, Western extension of Island Line, Whampoa extension of the Kwun Tong Line, and the Hong Kong link to the national high-speed rail system – are a matter of public record.
And the fifth project – the Sha Tin to Central Link – is in a class by itself for incompetence. At the time of writing, we not only do not know when – or if – the line will ever open.
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