Letters | Hong Kong protests: Cross-Harbour Tunnel was an obvious target for vandals, why wasn’t it better protected?
- The destruction of the tunnel toll booths must not prevent the opening of this vital harbour crossing as soon as possible
The close proximity of Polytechnic University to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel always meant that it was a likely target for protests. One might thus suppose that special security measures would have been taken in advance to protect the tunnel toll plaza and to ensure that this road link, perhaps the most critical in the territory, remained open at all times.
One can hope, nevertheless, that this relaxed attitude might soon change if sufficient public pressure could be brought to bear for it to be reopened. What must not happen is that the tunnel remains closed on the grounds that tolls cannot now be collected. I would suspect that it will be months before the toll booths can again be operational.
The tunnel management in this regard should instead show the same initiative as that demonstrated by the MTR management in many of their stations, where staff offer portable handheld Octopus card readers to passengers passing through their wrecked ticket machines. This will work well as an interim measure.
R. J. F Brothers, Sai Kung