The MTR chairman Rex Auyeung on Sunday said the railway company has geared up for an expected surge in passenger traffic during the Golden Week holiday.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Auyeung said MTR staff are assessing the situation and will step up train services as needed.

"Usually when we know passenger traffic will increase during long holidays like Golden Week, our colleagues monitor the situation and see if they need to add more trains. We'll handle it with flexibility, so there's no need to worry," he said.

The Travel Industry Council also said on Saturday that some 600,000 mainland tourists are expected to visit Hong Kong during the five-day Golden Week holiday.

Auyeung also said that while services had returned to 90 percent of pre-Covid levels, or 4.5 million passengers per day, tourists numbers are still lower than during pre-pandemic days.

The chairman also admitted that a series of recent delays in train services had caused inconvenience, adding that more will be done to avoid service disruption.

"We have signed contracts with several local universities to study how to prevent similar issues. For example, we are using infrared radiation to detect problems in advance and doing our best to fix them," he said.