All right, let’s dive into this article about Hong Kong’s rail giant facing a hefty penalty for a five-hour suspension. So, apparently, the MTR Corp could be slapped with a fine of HK$19.2 million for the chaos caused by power supply and signalling malfunctions on Thursday. Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu spilled the tea on Friday, revealing that the fine could be broken down into HK$9.6 million for delays of more than three hours but less than four, and an additional HK$4.8 million for each hour thereafter. According to Zhang, the delay lasted just over five hours, so that’s where the HK$19.2 million estimate comes from.
The breakdown was reportedly triggered by a displaced overhead cable component in a tunnel section, resulting in a short circuit. This led to long queues at Tiu Keng Leng station and packed pavements outside North Point station as passengers scrambled for alternative transportation. The chaos didn’t stop there, as traffic jams clogged up the roads between Wan Chai and Island East, as well as between the Eastern Harbour Tunnel and Kai Tak. It was a full-blown mess, to say the least.
Not really sure why this matters, but it seems like the MTR Corporation is under some serious heat to revamp its overhead cable system and step up its inspection game using fancy technology. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like they should have figured this out sooner to avoid such a massive headache. Zhang also mentioned that the engineering staff took ages to figure out what went wrong, so maybe more real-time data analysis and sensors could help speed up the problem-solving process in the future. Just a thought. So, yeah, it looks like the MTR Corp has some work cut out for them to prevent this kind of chaos from happening again.
