‘Rare and serious’ 50cm-long crack found on Hong Kong light rail track, causing MTR to divert trains
MTR carries out temporary restoration work that allowed service to resume, but operator plans thorough review of what went wrong
In a rare glitch prompting Hong Kong’s light rail trains in Tuen Mun to switch routes, a long crack was found on a track near the Goodview Garden station, stoking infrastructure fears, the Post has learned.
The 50cm-long crack was discovered before noon on Thursday as a light rail train proceeded to the Goodview Garden stop in Tuen Mun, according to an MTR Corporation source. An engineer spotted the long crack near the stop’s track.
The crack was immediately reported to MTR’s operations control centre, which quickly decided that all trains passing the Goodview Garden stop – 614,614P and 507 – needed to divert to a longer route via the Sam Shing stop. The re-routing means travel to Goodview Garden is three to four minutes longer than usual.
“The crack is very long, about 50cm long, which is rare and serious,” the source said. “The MTR Corp has dispatched some engineers to inspect the track and see if they can remedy it.”
An MTR spokeswoman confirmed a horizontal crack had been found at a rail section between Goodview Garden and Siu Lun. But she was unable initially to say how long the crack was.