"Give us a little time": New MTR chief Frederick Ma defends staff over ban of large instruments on Hong Kong trains

The MTR Corp's incoming chairman has defended the company's policy on oversized luggage at stations after a number of musicians carrying large instruments were recently banned.

Frederick Ma Si-hang reiterated there had been no change in regulations on oversized luggage and said localists would not be allowed to "hijack" the issue.

"As far as I know there is no policy change," Ma said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

The former commerce secretary, who was appointed last July to head the MTR Corp effective from January 1, 2016, said he was aware of the recent cases.

"I did ask myself about the ban, too, and I think the issue might lie with some of our 4,000 frontline staff officers who monitor a daily flow of 5.4 million passengers," he said.

Their work had become more challenging due to social and technological changes, Ma said. He cited the emergence of so-called parallel traders, who buy goods in Hong Kong for resale across the border.

"First of all there are more parallel traders in the MTR than before, and with the advent of social media, things that went unreported before get to circulate in text messages or images, so passengers are getting more and more demanding, posing increasing pressure on our staff.