Hong Kong protests have left the MTR Corporation beaten, bruised and bleeding – and it was supposed to be celebrating its 40th anniversary
- Rail operator’s annus horribilis arrived on the back of a scandalous 2018
- After the delays and budget overruns that plagued the Sha Tin-Central link came petrol bombs, vandalism, and an expected HK$1.6 billion financial hit
It was just after midnight on December 12, and tired railway workers at Ngau Tau Kok MTR station in east Kowloon were preparing to go home at the end of a long day.
Hong Kong’s rail network had enjoyed weeks of relative calm, after months of violence and vandalism as anti-government protests spilled into metro stations.
Suddenly, the peace was shattered. Black-clad rioters hurled petrol bombs inside Ngau Tau Kok station at about 1am, the MTR Corporation said, damaging escalators, ticket machines and a Maxim’s Cakes shop. The station was evacuated and closed about 30 minutes early.
It was the latest in a series of attacks by anti-government radicals, piling on woes in a year when the rail giant should have been celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The MTR Corp began 2019 hoping to put a scandalous 2018 behind it, after a series of management crises and construction problems resulted in delays and budget overruns for the Sha Tin-Central rail link, the city’s most expensive rail project at HK$99.1 billion.
Heads rolled, and this year Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen and Jacob Kam Chak-pui took over as chairman and CEO respectively.