Train fault causes 7-hour service disruption on Hong Kong’s East Rail line
Thousands of passengers forced to wait for up to 24 minutes at some stations as workers rushed to fix fault on five-car engineer’s train
Services were severely disrupted on Hong Kong’s East Rail line for more than seven hours on Wednesday after a faulty sensor left an engineer’s train sitting stationary on the tracks, with the operator fixing the problem in the afternoon.
Thousands of passengers were forced to wait on platforms for up to 24 minutes at certain stops as the five-car engineer’s train remained near Tai Wo MTR station while workers scrambled to make repairs.
The MTR Corporation said the train was found to have problems after it had completed work on a rail section between Tai Wo and Fanling stations early on Wednesday.
“We found that one of the sensors in the levelling system seemed to be faulty, so we had to get it fixed, and to make sure the train can operate safely on its way back,” said Lee Kim-hung, the MTR Corp’s chief of operations engineering maintenance.
He said the problem, found in the crane wagon which is used to load equipment, had caused part of the train to tilt to the left. The other four cars were not affected.
Lee said the train did not derail and “remained stationary at all times” but some wheels had “deviated from the rail” during recovery work.