Exclusive | Completion of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin to Central link ‘to be pushed back yet again, as MTR Corp cannot make up for past delays’
- A source says signalling glitches last year are to blame for the rail project missing its projected completion date of the first quarter of 2022
- The MTR Corporation hopes ‘to make sure this will be the final revision’ to the project’s completion date, the source says.
According to a source, the rail giant was still determining the ultimate length of the delay to the cross-harbour Hung Hom-Admiralty section of the HK$90.7 billion (US$11.7 billion) rail link, adding that the final completion date was still unknown.
“Due to the signalling system glitches for the connecting East Rail line last year, this project has been delayed by five months. It would be impossible to complete the section by the scheduled first quarter of next year, no matter how hard the MTR has tried,” the insider said.
“The question now is when the project can be completed after repeated delays. Everybody, including the government, hopes that the MTR Corp can get it done by the second quarter.”
The source added the rail giant hoped “to make sure this will be the final revision [to the completion date] before announcing it to the public”.