Miranda Leung's MTR detour that got her career on track
From secretary to public face of the MTR, Miranda Leung has been with the railway operator for an eventful 37 years - now she's ready to retire
When Miranda Leung Chan Che-ming joined the MTR Corporation in 1976, she never thought she would stay there for 37 years until she retired.
It was three years before the railway opened its first section, a 15-kilometre track linking Kwun Tong and Central, when Leung quit her job as a junior secretary in the government and joined the transport company.
Now, as the affable Leung reaches retirement age, the MTR network has expanded to over 210 kilometres, with five new railways under way. And Leung has gone from personal secretary to the MTR's general manager of corporate relations.
"There are different challenges at different times," said Leung, who leaves her job on January 9. "In the beginning, when construction first started and hoardings were erected everywhere, we needed to explain to the public the benefit of a railway, and why we were making their lives inconvenient.
"We received letters and phone calls every day, and there were petitions as well. Some couldn't see the long-term benefit of it at that time. But now [it] has become part of everyone's life." Even after construction was completed, the job was not so easy, Leung said.
"It's a fully automatic system. It's new. We need our passengers to understand it. So we had an open day, in which we gave them coins to buy tickets, and showed them how to get through the gates. We had ambassadors dressed in red, who were called 'courtesy girls' at that time."