What passengers do when travelling on MTR?

Frequencies of train service delay incidents has increased in recent years and what are people doing during the commute time on MTR?

Rushing into the train, Miss Shalot Tsang finally got a seat for her long journey to work. “I am used to the competition [for a seat],” said Shalot, who commute from Tseung Kwan O to Sha Tin on weekdays, “because the journey sometimes takes nearly an hour.”

Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR), which serves as one of the major public transportation in Hong Kong, has been renowned for its reliable and efficient service. However, passengers' discontentments have been risen in recent years due to the frequent train service failures.

“Train service often delays nowadays. I need much time to commute to work,” said Shalot.

In July, Jay Herbert Walder announced in the first seven months in 2014, there were 97 train service delay incidents. Among these incidents, 78 delays have lasted for over 8 minutes while most of them were due to “signalling failure”.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) has interviewed about 1000 passengers about their satisfactory towards the railway service in March.

The survey said that over 40 percent of the interviewees have been directly affected by the service disruptions in the first three months this year.

The survey revealed over half of the respondents were unsatisfied with the arrangement during service failures.

What people do when they need to spend much time on MTR?

Solutions in solving the problem

The MTR announced to increase the frequencies of train for six lines, including Island Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Kwun Tong Line, Tseung Kwan O Line, Tung Chung Line and West Rail Line, since the end of August this year.

“Disruptions keep happening. The service enhancement would not help unless the root problem — system failure — is solved,” said Shalot.

Mr Ronald Lee, maintenance engineer of the infrastructure maintenance department, attributed the recurrent train service delay incident to the line extension project which planned to be finished successively by 2020.

“It [MTR Corporation] is too ambitious in extending the network regardless of the shortage of labour,” said Mr Lee, “the extension projects add much burdens to our staff, therefore, it may affect the service adversely, for example, more delay incidents will take place.

Proposed line extension project by 2020

The MTR claimed that there were sufficient manpower to provide professional and safety services to both Hong Kong citizens and tourists.

During the non-peak hours, passengers can easily get onto the train and find a seat.

People are tightly-packed inside the MTR station, waiting for getting to the platform during the peak hours. The situation gets worsen when the train service delays.

Passengers may only be able to get into the compartment after waiting for three to four trains during peak hours at some of the interchange stations, like Prince Edward.

One of the MTR staff, who refused to reveal his identity, said he has seen people rushing into the train got injured for several times when the platform doors are closing.