Hong Kong high-speed rail link hit by another setback as water leaks into signalling system

MTR Corporation admits it is unable to fully prevent failure that caused problem in Mai Po tunnel

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Fresh troubles have hit the trial run of the cross-border rail link. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 5:23pm, 22 May 2018Updated: 10:59pm, 22 May 2018

The trial run of Hong Kong’s HK$84.4 billion cross-border high-speed rail link has run into its second glitch in less than two months.

A section of its signalling system was affected by underground water leaks, something rail operator MTR Corporation admitted was partly beyond their control.

The fault near Mai Po in the New Territories, which happened last Friday, followed the derailing of a train car three days after the link’s trial run started on April 1. An initial investigation showed that the problem was caused by a track malfunction.

The latest incident happened at about 10am on Friday, when the signalling system showed “signs of instability”, the MTR Corp said on Tuesday.

According to a statement released by the corporation, staff immediately stopped the trial run on that section of track, and deployed maintenance staff to check the system.

“The maintenance staff noticed there were water marks on the ground near the rail section and they believed those were caused by underground water,” the statement said. “After thorough examination … they believed the signalling system became unstable by the moisture effect.”

Hong Kong’s high-speed rail link to mainland set for trials next month, ahead of planned September opening

The company said that since the track and all other facilities, such as the tunnel’s water pumps, were working normally, express trains could run slowly across that section, and by 11.15am they started to resume the trial run.