Lawmaker urges MTR to introduce mainland suppliers after slow facility enhancement

Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun suggested the MTR Corporation introduces equipment suppliers from the mainland after the East Rail Line services were disrupted during the peak hours of the morning and evening on Wednesday.

This comes after a signal system component failure happened at Sheung Shui Station yesterday morning, and the issue was only able to be fixed after an overnight repair.

Tien questioned the slow progress of the MTR facility enhancements and stated that it is impossible to rely solely on foreign companies for crucial software updates and suggested introducing some mainland companies to participate.

Another lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu said the government should launch a probe as it is rare for a malfunction of the railroad automatic point machines to disrupt services across two rush hour periods.

Zhang said the faulty railroad switch could usually be fixed within one to two hours.

However, some industry representatives pointed out that the aging of the MTR operation system is inevitable and suggested deploying more staff to deal with unexpected failures.

Henry Cheung Nin-sang, chairman of the Association of Hong Kong Railway Transport Professionals, said the systems are relatively old and random failures could have occurred.

He said conducting more inspections would not be helpful, but having more personnel within emergency response teams may be beneficial in promptly handling the issues.

Cheung also suggested prioritizing the updating and renovating facilities on urban lines and timely updates to the railway system.