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MTR Corporation
OpinionComment
Alice Wu
Alice Wu

Opinion | The MTR, like Hong Kong itself, must live up to its world-class reputation

  • The MTR has long been Hong Kong’s pride and joy, but a spate of mishaps and mishandlings have dented confidence in it
  • We cannot allow the standards of our city and its services to slip just as we are about to reopen to the world

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MTR passengers at Admiralty station on May 16. Hong Kong’s MTR is a world-class railway that is also lucrative, which makes it an envy of many other rail operators. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Alice Wu

I fully expect to get from point A to point B, C and D without delays or hiccups on our city’s railway. I take for granted the fresh air I get to breathe in our terminals. Our trains and stations are almost spotless and do not reek of urine or chemicals like many subway systems elsewhere. Each time an incident occurs to interrupt MTR services, it makes headline news, commuters grumble, and our politicians are all over it.

Our trains are as efficient, punctual – a 99.9 per cent punctuality rate (in 2017) is incredible – reliable and convenient as they get. Hong Kong’s half-a-century-old railway system really has been this city’s pride and joy.

It is also a world-class railway that is lucrative – and that last bit makes it an envy to many. The MTR has expanded its business not only beyond transport and into property, but also beyond Hong Kong, taking part in railway development and operations in different cities.

The rush-hour crowd isn’t pleasant but that, too, has become part of the routine. In today’s post-Covid Hong Kong, that sense of routine and normalcy is grounding.

Still, the MTR has experienced more than a few snags. In the summer of 2017, the MTR was hit by a spate of service delays – six major service disruptions in two weeks due to the use of a new signalling system – and it promised to “invest significant amount of resources on maintenance and asset replacement to ensure our railway system remains in good condition”.
But five years on, we must question whether the railway did, in fact, devote enough resources to maintenance. Last Sunday’s incident is shocking on so many levels. The front carriage of the train derailed, and two sets of doors were ripped off because of a displaced metal fence. Not only that, MTR staff mishandled the evacuation of the train.
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