Exclusive | How Hong Kong’s MTR controllers keep 5 million daily commuters on track
Rail giant opens up its control room to media and talks about the daily life of controllers – and a taboo dim sum dish no one dares to eat
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A behind-the-scenes look at Hong Kong’s MTR, the city’s transport lifeline
In a busy 700 square metre (7,534 square foot) control room in Tsing Yi at the heart of Hong Kong’s busy MTR network, 100 staff members no longer dare to eat a particular dim sum dish after it came to be unexpectedly associated with bad luck.
From frontline controllers to Cheris Lee Yuen-ling, the MTR Corporation’s chief of operating and metro segment, not one is willing to risk eating glutinous rice with chicken for breakfast or lunch.
“It happened many years ago when a traffic controller was about to consume a piece of steamed glutinous rice [with] chicken – the one wrapped with a lotus leaf for breakfast,” Lee recalled.
“And then the system started to have many ad hoc situations. He could not have it until dinner. That’s why there is a joke [about] not to take this food for breakfast or for lunch; otherwise, you will have a busy day.”
The bustling control centre oversees 10 of the city’s train lines, but does not cover light rail services in Yuen Long and Tuen Mun or the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.
Lee described the room in Tsing Yi station as the “brain” of Hong Kong’s rail network.