An equipment fault that stranded an engineer's train near Tai Wo MTR Station disrupted services on the East Rail Line on Wednesday morning.

Some stations saw 24-minute intervals between trains during the morning rush hour, with crowd management measures put in place.

The MTR Corporation apologised for the disruption. Shortly after 1pm it said the train had been moved away from the area and normal services were resuming.

Lee Kim-hung, the railway firm's chief of operations engineering maintenance, said the equipment fault was related to the train's levelling system.

"We found one of the sensors in the levelling system to be faulty, so we had to get it fixed and to make sure that the train can operate safely on the way back," he told reporters.

Some passengers RTHK spoke to said the disruption to their journey was minimal.

"Because I already learned about [the disruption] early in the morning after paying attention to the news before going to work, so there wasn't a problem for me," a woman surnamed Chan said.

A passenger surnamed Yim said he expected a bit of a delay.

"I am not in a rush, so it isn't much of an issue... I think I'll be half an hour late," he said.

The Transport Department said it asked the railway firm to "make all-out efforts to follow up and complete the necessary maintenance" to resume normal service as soon as possible.

"The [department's] Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre has been closely monitoring the traffic conditions and public transport services of various districts and affected stations," it said.

Bus companies beefed up services for some routes in response to the extra passenger demand.

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Last updated: 2025-02-05 HKT 13:31