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Letters | Why Hong Kong MTR decisions on East Rail line look off-track to commuters

  • Even without traffic from Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau, crowding more people onto smaller East Rail trains makes no sense

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MTR staff at Hung Hom Station on the East Rail Line direct passengers to shuttle buses as train services between Mong Kok East and Hung Hom stations are suspended on January 10. Photo: Dickson Lee
Letters
Has the MTR bitten off more than it can chew with the Sha Tin-Central link? Like millions of others, I am a regular commuter on the MTR and have taken pride in the system for its efficiency and world-class service.

In recent times, though, its efficiency and quality seem to be going south. I still sympathise with the MTR being caught in the middle amid project delays and protest-related issues, though they could have handled it with a bit more acumen. 

Some of the project delays are understandable, such as finding cultural artefacts while digging and having to ensure their preservation. Others – the primary one being the Hung Hom platform saga – could have been completely avoided.

Coming back to the Sha Tin-Central link, recently the morning commute to work on the East Rail line has been riddled with regular delays. The journey between Mong Kok and Hung Hom in particular seems to take forever. The train just stops when any train approaches from the opposite direction, which was not the case before.

Most appallingly, the size of East Rail line trains has been cut from 12 cars to nine. The reason? Trains with 12 cars cannot cope with the track constraints on Hong Kong Island.

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MTR train carrying passengers derails in Hong Kong

MTR train carrying passengers derails in Hong Kong

Shouldn’t this have been one of the major aspects to address while the project was being conceived and assessed during feasibility studies, instead of discovering the issue after having come so far in the project? Being a new line, the MTR could have easily planned to accommodate this.

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