Fault causes over 6 hours of service disruptions on Hong Kong’s East Rail line
MTR Corp says normal operations resumed after emergency repairs completed and engineer’s train cleared from tracks between Sha Tin and Fo Tan
Passenger services on Hong Kong’s East Rail line were disrupted for more than six hours on Sunday as staff worked to move a faulty engineer’s train off the tracks between two stations, with the operator pledging to look into the incident, the second such case in recent months.
“Following emergency repairs by engineering staff, the train has been moved away and safely parked near the platform of Fo Tan station. East Rail line services resumed at around noon,” it said.
The MTR Corp said the train’s lifting platform experienced a mechanical fault at around 4am after workers completed maintenance work on overhead cables on the northbound tracks between Sha Tin and Fo Tan stations.
“The train’s lifting platform failed to lower due to a mechanical fault. As the lifting platform was close to the overhead cables at that time, engineering staff assessed the situation and decided to handle the issue on-site before moving the train to ensure safety,” it said.
The company said it would conduct a detailed inspection after the train returned to the depot on Sunday night. It would also thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and take follow-up action, it added.