$150m upgrade for LRT

THE Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) is to upgrade the Light Rail Transit (LRT) train service amid passenger complaints of over-packed trains.

The KCRC expects to spend more than $150 million on new vehicles, widening the existing 57 waiting platforms, and installing digital announcement and visual display board systems.

The projects are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. But yesterday, residents from the Yuen Long, Tuen Mun and Tin Shui Wai areas covered by the eight LRT routes staged a protest at the opening ceremony of the 800-metre rail extension in Tin Shui Wai.

They said that LRT's service does not meet demand.

'I've seen people fighting to get on the train in a brutal manner and children being pushed on to the train before parents throw in their schoolbags,' said Wong Wai-yin, one of the protesters and a Democratic Party member in the district.

Acting Light Rail director Li Yun-tai said new trains would be bought after assessing passenger demand.