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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Yuk-man and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (December 2):
Question:
It has been reported that a number of incidents of the railway services of the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) have occurred recently. For instance, in September this year, a train on the Tung Chung Line skipped stations, and incidents in which escalators suddenly broke up while in operation occurred at the MTR Quarry Bay Station and Wong Tai Sin Station. Besides, staff members of MTRCL are alleged of having adopted double standards in enforcing the regulation on the size of passenger luggage, i.e. parallel traders with bulky luggage are allowed to board MTR trains while students carrying musical instruments are forbidden to enter the paid areas or issued with warning letters. Some members of the public have queried whether the Government, as the major shareholder of MTRCL, has properly monitored the service performance of MTRCL. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that under the existing Service Performance Arrangement, MTRCL is required to notify the Transport Department of and submit reports on any railway service disruption which has lasted, or is expected to last, for eight minutes or more, and pay a fine for any service disruption of 31 minutes or more, but such arrangements are not precautionary measures, of the standing measures taken by the Government to ensure that the incidence of service disruption has been minimised;
(2) given that the authorities indicated in June this year that after obtaining funding for the creation of new posts in the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, the Department would enhance the monitoring of MTRCL's train service to cover the proactive inspection of its railway system, the examination of MTRCL's work procedures and safety management system as well as the enhancement of the transparency of MTRCL's operation in addition to the purposeful investigations regularly conducted after the occurrence of railway incidents and their follow-up, of the relevant manpower arrangements and work plans; and
(3) given that among the incumbent members of the Board of Directors of MTRCL, four of them are government officials, whether the Government will consider instructing those officials to make public the views they expressed at the Board meetings after each meeting, so that the public would have a better understanding of the role of the government officials in such meetings?
Reply:
President,
The safety and reliability of railway service is largely dependent on whether the operator establishes stringent safety management and asset management for the railway system; carries out regular and appropriate inspection, maintenance and timely renewal for various components of the system; and takes prompt follow-up action in response to railway incidents.
The Government has also put in place a well-established regulatory regime for ensuring the safety and reliability of MTR service. Legally, the Mass Transit Railway Ordinance (Cap. 556) (the Ordinance) stipulates that the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) shall maintain a proper and efficient service at all times during the franchise period in accordance with the Ordinance and the Operating Agreement (OA) entered into between the Government and the Corporation. The OA sets performance targets in respect of the MTR's train frequencies and station facilities, including train service delivery, journeys on time, escalator reliability and lift reliability. The Railway Monitoring Division of the Transport Department monitors the service performance of the railway network by, among others, examining the MTRCL's monthly operating returns on the above performance indicators; and handling complaints received from the public to ensure that the MTRCL provides a proper and efficient service in accordance with the OA.
The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) is the statutory regulator on railway safety. In accordance with the Ordinance and the Mass Transit Railway Regulations (Cap. 556 sub. leg. A) (the Regulations), the EMSD personnel may, for the purposes of ensuring railway safety and investigating railway incidents, enter the MTRCL's railway premises to conduct inspections and request the Corporation to submit information or documents relating to its railway system.
The Hon Wong Yuk-man mentioned the incident on September 18, 2015 during which a Tung Chung Line train passed the MTR Kowloon Station and Olympic Station without stopping. The EMSD personnel arrived at the scene on that day to investigate into the incident and requested a detailed account of the incident from the MTRCL staff. Upon investigation, the EMSD found that the incident was due to human error in setting train routes at the MTR Operations Control Centre. Although the incident caused inconvenience to passengers, it did not affect railway safety. To avoid recurrence, the MTRCL has implemented improvement measures to ensure that the manual control procedures are reviewed by another staff.
As regards the escalator incidents occurred in MTR Quarry Bay Station and Wong Tai Sin Station on September 17 and September 20 respectively, the EMSD has completed investigations and confirmed that both incidents were caused by foreign objects rather than equipment failure of the escalators. All escalators in MTR stations are subject to regulation under the Lifts and Escalators Ordinance (Cap. 618) and its subsidiary regulations. In 2014, the EMSD conducted a total of 241 inspections of the escalators in MTR stations and found no irregularities.
The Hon Wong's question also covers the standards MTR staff adopt in handling oversized luggage. As advised by the MTRCL, the existing limit on luggage size is formulated having regard to factors including railway safety, the design of stations and trains running on various railway lines as well as passenger flow, and applies to all passengers. Although the enforcement with regard to the limit on luggage size is non-discretionary, the Corporation noted that some passengers might need to carry relatively larger musical instruments when travelling on the MTR. In this regard, the MTRCL launched the "Trial Registration Scheme for Carriage of Oversized Musical Instruments" in November 2015 upon public consultation and risk assessment. Passengers with prior registration may carry musical instruments with measurements not exceeding the new size limit under the trial scheme while travelling on the MTR (except during a period in morning peak hours), on condition that they are fully aware of the safety rules and matters which should be observed when carrying large musical instruments.
My reply to the various parts of the Hon Wong's question is as follows:
(1) The reliability and safety of MTR service have been maintained at an internationally recognised high standard, as can be demonstrated by the MTR's excellent rankings in the benchmark comparison of the Community of Metros over the years. Since the rail merger in December 2007, there has been a continuous increase in MTR train frequency from an average daily total of around 7 300 trips in 2008 to an average daily total of over 8 100 trips at present. During the same period, the total route length of the MTR network has also increased from 211 kilometres to 220 kilometres. Despite the increase in train frequency and the expansion of the railway network, the total number of railway service disruptions has remained stable in the past few years. In 2014, there was 160 service disruption incidents of eight minutes or above caused by equipment failure or human factors, which is the same as that in 2008. The number of such incidents in 2015, as of October, is 118, which is lower as compared to the 130 incidents in 2014 on a year-on-year basis. This demonstrates that railway service performance has remained stable over the years. The incident figures from 2008 to October 2015 are at Annex. Nevertheless, the Government understands that members of the public have very high expectations of MTR service. Therefore, the Government has been requesting that the MTRCL carry out stringent railway inspection, maintenance and renewal to maintain a high standard of service quality.
In 2014, the EMSD personnel conducted a total of 168 inspections of the railway system and facilities, with a view to ensuring that the MTRCL had carried out maintenance work properly to minimise the risk of incidents which lead to service disruptions. Under the Regulations, the MTRCL shall also report to the EMSD any safety-related incidents that have taken place in any part of the railway premises. Based on the nature and severity of these incidents, the EMSD may request the MTRCL to submit reports, and may also conduct investigations where necessary. On identification of any room for improvement, the EMSD will request that the MTRCL take follow-up action to minimise the risk of recurrence of similar incidents.
(2) In view of continuous increase in train frequency and expansion of the railway network, the Government sees the need to strengthen the manpower of the EMSD to maintain effective safety monitoring. In this regard, the Government decided to allocate additional funding starting from the 2015-16 financial year for the creation of nine permanent posts of professional and technical grades in the Railways Branch of the EMSD, two of which are directorate posts, viz. one Chief Electrical and Mechanical Engineer and one Chief Electronics Engineer. Currently, seven non-directorate posts have been created. As for the creation of two directorate posts, the proposal was supported by the Subcommittee on Matters Relating to Railways of the Panel on Transport and the Establishment Subcommittee of the Finance Committee (FC) of the Legislative Council in March and June 2015 respectively, and was approved by the FC on November 27.
With the additional manpower, the EMSD will, apart from handling the additional workload generated by the increase in train frequency and expansion of the railway network, step up daily regulatory work at various levels, including: (i) conducting regular safety inspections specifically focusing on the MTRCL's maintenance work for the safety critical components of the railway system; (ii) looking into similar components of the railway system when incidents occur to avoid recurrence; and (iii) increasing the frequency and depth of various inspections so as to extend its inspection work to the system level, for instance, by proactively looking into the workflow of the MTRCL on its maintenance of various critical electrical and mechanical safety systems, as well as the establishment of the MTRCL's personnel, in order to enhance railway safety performance. Specifically, the number of inspections conducted by the EMSD will increase progressively from 168 in 2014 to around 280 in 2020.
Besides, the EMSD will also introduce new elements to its existing regulatory regime by reviewing and refining the safety regulatory regime over the MTRCL from a macro and strategic perspective, including auditing the whole set of safety management and asset management work of the MTRCL, e.g. asset inspection, maintenance and renewal, for a more comprehensive and in-depth monitoring of the quality of the MTRCL's safety management and asset management. These new measures, together with the existing regulatory mechanism, will enhance the effectiveness of the monitoring work on railway safety and the internal management of the MTRCL.
(3) Currently, the MTRCL Board comprises 20 members, among whom 19 are non-executive directors, including four Government Directors. Pursuant to the Articles of Association of the MTRCL and the Protocol adopted by the MTRCL Board, the Board focuses on handling matters affecting the Corporation's overall strategic policies, corporate governance, finances and shareholders while the day-to-day running of the Corporation is delegated to the management.
The Government has been proactively carrying out its duty as the Corporation's majority shareholder by reflecting the common concerns of the community on MTR operations to the Board from time to time. A case in point is fare concessions. All along, the Government Directors have been requesting the MTRCL to provide different kinds of fare concessions to cater for the different needs of passengers, having regard to the financial viability of the MTRCL as a listed company. Moreover, as urged by the Government Directors, the MTRCL has reviewed its corporate structure and operation, and carried out reforms. In August 2014, two new committees under the MTRCL Board, namely the Capital Works Committee and the Risk Committee, were set up. These two committees will facilitate more in-depth and focused supervision of the progress of the MTRCL's works projects and its overall risk management, including railway operation and service performance. Furthermore, on the recommendation of the Government Directors to the Nominations Committee of the MTRCL Board and as approved by the MTRCL Board, a total of five independent non-executive directors were appointed by the MTRCL in October 2014 and August 2015. The Chief Executive also appointed the Permanent Secretary for Development (Works) as a non-executive director of the MTRCL Board in October 2014 pursuant to the Ordinance.
The specific issues that the MTRCL Board deliberates and the detailed discussions that it carries out at its meetings, save for those information that is required to be disclosed under the regulation of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Chapter 571), are generally considered confidential information of the MTRCL. All directors of the MTRCL (including Government Directors) have an obligation to preserve secrecy, and cannot disclose any specific issues that the MTRCL Board deliberates and any detailed discussions carried out at its meetings.
Ends/Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:03
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