MTR train breaks down on West Rail Line during Hong Kong morning rush hour, and firm struggles to get message across
Operator apologises after control centre issues error-ridden announcements during breakdown which caused delays of between 15 and 20 minutes for commuters
Hong Kong’s railway operator has apologised after it used the wrong Chinese characters for the names of several stations in error-ridden passenger announcements issued during a breakdown on the West Rail Line in Wednesday’s morning rush hour.
A spokesman for the MTR Corporation said staff at its operations control centre had been trying to get the information up on passenger display screens at all stations as soon as possible, and in their haste had introduced the errors, which were corrected within 10 minutes.
The mistakes were mostly seen in the Chinese names of Nam Cheong, Austin and Mei Foo stations.
A train entering Nam Cheong broke down at about 9.30am, triggering major disruption along the line and suspending services between Austin and Mei Foo.
The spokesman said commuters had faced delays of between 15 and 20 minutes when travelling on the line.
The disruptions were attributed to an equipment fault on the train.