Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam ‘more than willing’ to get tough with MTR Corp after crash, as authorities confirm rail giant will be fined
- Operator apologises to city residents as trains involved in Monday’s accident removed from main tracks
- Transport and Housing Bureau confirms that rail giant will be fined
Hong Kong’s leader has made it clear her administration is ready to step in and get tougher if necessary to ensure the city’s rail operator strikes the right balance between its business interests and its responsibility to the public.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s firm stance was followed by the Transport and Housing Bureau on Wednesday confirming that the MTR Corporation would be fined, with the amount redistributed to commuters as fare rebates.
The bureau said its top priority was to determine the cause of the crash, but stressed it would follow up on the fine.
Lam was responding to an unprecedented two-day breakdown of services between Admiralty and Central stations on the Tsuen Wan MTR line after a train crash during a trial run for a new signalling system.
While MTR Corp bosses apologised to the public as the outage ended on Wednesday morning, Lam said the government could do more as the railway operator’s majority shareholder.
“Many public bodies will encounter problems over increasing work and calls for transparency,” Lam told lawmakers. “So the governing boards of these public bodies need to have the ability to reflect upon and review themselves. If it requires the government’s intervention to instil change, I am more than willing to do so.”