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Su Xinqi

Hundreds of passengers heading to mainland China via a cross-border high-speed rail link were trapped in Hong Kong after equipment failure caused chaos at the West Kowloon station on Sunday.
The failure of several ticket machines and confusing messages on the delays they caused, left passengers struggling to make their journeys on time.
The chaos, caused by a temporary glitch on the mainland section, happened as the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link was one week into its first run in the Spring Festival travel rush.
Over 40 days, from January 21 to March 1, the China Rail Corporation is expected to carry a total of 410 million passengers who will head home to spend time with family.

The two trains affected were the G6520, which was originally scheduled to depart for Guangzhou South at 3pm, and the G6506 to Shenzhen North at 3.41pm. Both trains were delayed for some 60 minutes.
A series of service faults started at the ticket gate, where automatic machines were not able to read tickets for passengers travelling to Guangzhou South.
Staff members directed passengers to have their tickets manually checked at another gate, but staff there sent passengers to the Information Kiosk first.
Once passengers made it through the gate, they were greeted with long queues behind the immigration check on the mainland side, where only two lanes of security checks were available, while hundreds were waiting.


Some of those running for the 3pm train had to jump the queue and squeeze their luggage on to the conveyor belt, while apologising to people behind.
The final test of passengers’ nerves came in the departure hall, where the queue for the train to Guangzhou South extended for more than 100 metres.
At 2.50pm, while an announcement over the tannoy said the train had started boarding, staff members on the ground were shouting out instructions that the service had been delayed.
Five minutes later, there was a final call for the train, prompting some passengers at the back of the queue to dash to the gate, where they were told about the delay.
It was not until 3.03pm that an announcement was made that the train would be an hour late.
That was too much for one female passenger, who said: “Can’t you broadcast the correct information?”
Everything you need to know about the high-speed rail
Another male passenger asked a staff member if he could board another train to Guangzhou and stand through the ride.
“They allow us to do so on the mainland,” he said. “I have another ride to catch. So, if you can’t arrange this, you must issue me a letter so that I can claim my damages.”
It was not until 3.33pm that a text message from the MTR Corporation arrived on the mobile phones of affected passengers. But, it did not detail which trains had been affected, nor when they might leave.
By 4.15pm the trains had departed the station and service resumed.
In response to the incident, a spokesman for the MTR Corp said it had informed frontline staff after they were notified of the glitch by their mainland counterparts.
Additional reporting by Rachel Leung


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Ticket glitch leaves rail passengers stuck in Hong Kong as chaos hits start of annual Chinese holiday travel rush

Passengers is seen inside the West Kowloon Station High Speed Rail Station. Hundreds of passengers heading to Guangzhou and Shenzhen were trapped in the station due to service delay. 27JAN19 SCMP/ Edmond So

Security staff manually check passengers tickets inside the West Kowloon station. Photo: Edmond So

News

Hong Kong

Transport

Trains delayed for an hour and confusing announcements only make matters worse


Trains delayed for an hour and confusing announcements only make matters worse as China’s annual holiday travel rush gets under way.


Ticket glitch leaves rail passengers stuck in Hong Kong as chaos hits start of annual Chinese holiday travel rush

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Trains delayed for an hour and confusing announcements only make matters worse

Trains delayed for an hour and confusing announcements only make matters worse