MTR Corporation Strengthens Railway Maintenance and Safety After Recent Incidents, Enhancing Resilience and Incident Handling.

Government receives investigation reports on recent railway incidents and action plan from MTRCL

​In relation to three railwayincidents this year, namely the East Rail Line(EAL) engineering train incidents on February 5 and April 27, and the Tseung Kwan O Line (TKL) incident on May 22, the Government has instructed the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) to strengthen the maintenance of its railway system and incident handling capacity to enhance the overall resilience of the railway network. The Government received detailed investigation reports from the MTRCL on the EAL incident and TKL incident on May 27 and June 21 respectively.

At the Government's request, the MTRCL has also formulated an action plan on incident prevention and handling (attached to the TKL incident investigation report). The plan covers a one-off special inspection of targeted critical assets and a series of mid- to long-term measures. They include strengthening the monitoring and risk management of railway assets to enhance the overall resilience of the railway network; formulating plans for extreme scenarios, reinforcing drills and trainings under different scenarios, strengthening the decision-making and execution capacities of MTR staff during incidents; and enhancing free shuttle bus arrangements and strengthening information dissemination such as updates on repair work progress, suggestions on alternative routes to facilitate the public in planning their journey according to the latest situation, and rallying community support to assist affected passengers.

The Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, said, "The MTR is the major mode of transportation for Hong Kong people. The MTRCL must proactively address potential issues before they arise, enhance the safety of its railway systems and accelerate the application of innovative technologies to realise predictive maintenance for fortifying the overall resilience of the railway system. I look forward to the continued effort of the MTRCL management in motivating staff at all levels to work together to implement the measures set out in the action plan. The management should also leverage the wisdom of frontline staff and strengthen the sense of accountability of staff from different ranks."

The MTRCL completed a comprehensive review of its railway asset management and maintenance regime in June 2023, which sought to strengthen its railway asset management and maintenance regime in five major action areas. The Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB), the Transport Department (TD) and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) will continue to closely monitor the progress, implementation and effectiveness of various follow-up actions taken by the MTRCL. The Government will continue to supervise and guide the MTRCL to learn from the experiences of recent incidents, accelerate the application of innovative technologies to achieve data-driven asset management and strengthen risk prediction and mitigation.

The TLB, the TD and the EMSD will also closely monitor the MTRCL in implementing the improvement measures set out in the investigation reports of the three incidents to ensure that the MTR will continue to provide safe and reliable services to the public.

HKSAR Government welcomes court's decision to dismiss Chow Hang Tung's application for judicial review on clothing policy for persons in custody

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government welcomes the judgment handed down by the Court of First Instance of the High Court today (January 13) to dismiss Chow Hang Tung's application for judicial review on the clothing policy for persons in custody (PICs).

The court judgment pointed out that the current clothing policy for PICs, including the requirement for female PICs to wear trousers in summer daytime, was formulated by the Correctional Services Department (CSD) as authorised by the Prison Rules. The Court was satisfied that the CSD had the expertise and experience in the relevant context, and that it had carefully considered various factors, taken into account of professional opinion when making the decision, as well as reviewed the policy continuously. The Court ruled that Chow Hang Tung had failed to demonstrate that the current policy constituted less favourable treatment of a particular gender. The Court pointed out that there was currently no factual evidence to support any assertion that there was widespread concern about the health effects of wearing trousers in summer. In addition, the rule was not absolute, but instead allowed individual PICs to apply for exceptional arrangements in special circumstances. At the same time, the Court also rejected Chow Hang Tung's assertion that she had requested to the CSD in July and August 2024 to wear shorts and had been refused.

A spokesman for the Security Bureau said, "The ruling of the Court of First Instance confirmed that the CSD's approach is reasonable, justified and lawful. According to Rule 26 of the Prison Rules, the CSD must provide every PIC with a uniform that meets a scale imposed by the Commissioner of Correctional Services. Over the years, the CSD had appointed task groups from time to time to review the clothing arrangements of PICs. These reviews gave ample consideration to numerous factors, including the type of correctional institutions, PICs' varying daily routines and activities involved, the need for thermal, physical and psychological comfort for PICs of different genders, privacy and decency of PICs and the security, good order and discipline of the prison, so as to continuously refine clothing arrangements according to the prevailing circumstances."

The spokesman stated, "Chow Hang Tung's assertion that she requested to wear shorts in summer and was rejected by the CSD is entirely inconsistent with the facts and was rejected by the Court. Besides, the current clothing policy for PICs already provides a degree of flexibility. For example, a PIC may make an application to wear other clothing on medical or non-medical grounds to the CSD, and the CSD would make appropriate arrangements having considered the actual circumstances and relevant factors."

The CSD will continue to impartially implement the relevant rules of the Prison Rules in accordance with the law and commit to providing a secure, safe, humane, decent and healthy custodial environment.

Source: AI-found images