Editorial | Stop the blame game on MTR Corp’s woes

  • The government, being the key shareholder of the rail giant, is ultimately accountable, too, for the many shortcomings we have seen in recent years

Two trains collided during an overnight trial run of a new signalling system. Photo: Handout
There is more to an accident inquiry than just apportioning blame. Concluding a three-month investigation into a train crash during an overnight test of a new signalling system in March, the MTR Corporation laid the blame squarely on a contractor for the errors made in a software upgrade in 2017.

A government probe into the incident in turn criticised the train operator for being overreliant on the contractor. The findings came as no surprise amid a series of woes for the city’s rail operator in recent years. But whether they can address the inadequacies along the chain of supervision is another matter.

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