Services resume after engineer train causes 8 hour disruption near Tai Wo station

Train service on the East Rail Line resumed more than eight hours after it was disrupted by a faulty equipment in an engineer’s train near Tai Wo station this morning.

At around 1pm, the malfunctioned engineer’s train has been moved away and train service was resuming, MTR Corp said.

Nearly an hour later at 1.56pm, the company's website says services have returned to normal. 

MTR earlier said that a carriage of the engineer’s train tilted to the left due to a faulty level-sensing system and engineers needed to repair it to ensure safe movement of the train.

Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu, a former MTR engineer who is legislator for New Territories North, said the company had handled the incident properly as it would be dangerous to move a tilting train.  

“I understand that a failure in shock absorber caused the carriage to tilt and any attempt to forcibly move the train could worsen the situation,” Zhang said.

However, he noted insufficient dissemination of information at stations and the “uncommonly” long delays could trigger the fining mechanism for service disruptions.

Zhang said he will question the penalty issue at the Legislative Council Panel on Transport meeting on Friday.

A service disruption that lasts for over three hours during off-peak hours under the latest mechanism will cost HK$8 million with a HK$4 million fine added per subsequent hour.

During rush hours, a three-hour service disruption would be fined HK$9.6million and HK$4.8 million will be added per subsequent hour. The ceiling fine is HK$40 million.

Zhang also urged the company to reveal the cause of the incident as soon as possible and check similar malfunction risks in engineer’s trains of the same age. 

Lawmaker Lo Wai-kwok for the engineering constituency criticized the long service disruptions causing significant inconvenience to passengers.

“Commuters and students were heavily affected due to limited train operation during morning rush hours, which also disrupted journeys of tourists from Shenzhen,”  Lo said.

(Ayra Wang)