MTR announces half-price discount after worst performance in six years

The MTR Corporation yesterday offset reports of its worst time-keeping performance in six years by announcing its first-ever special discounts for passengers during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The promotion will offer a special half-price discount for adults travelling on the network with an Octopus card on the second and third days of next month's holidays. Those who already receive concessions, such as elderly and disabled people, children and students, will pay HK$1 per journey.

The railway company insisted the surprise move was to thank passengers for their support over the past 35 years and to celebrate the opening of the West Island Line last month. It dismissed speculation that the promotion was to defuse passengers' grievances over repeated fare hikes in recent years. In June, fares were increased by 3.6 per cent.

The news of the holiday discount was announced as MTR rounded up its service performance last year. Although the train on-time rate was maintained at more than 99.9 per cent, it dropped slightly from 99.94 per cent to 99.91 per cent - the lowest since 2008.

There were also 12 major incidents that disrupted train services for 31 minutes or more last year. Although this is five more than in 2013, Dr Jacob Kam Chak-pui, MTR operations director, pointed out the amount of time lost had dropped.

"There were longer delays in 2013, but we avoided that in 2014," he said. "Although there were more incidents, the overall time [delayed] has reduced." He added that more than 1,100 train trips were added to the MTR network per week last year.

The most serious delay saw train services affected by more than two hours after a section separator - part of the overhead cable - was damaged near Heng Fa Chuen station last month.