The MTR Corporation will be fined at least HK$1 million over disruption to East Rail Line services that lasted for more than seven hours on Wednesday, the government says.

The money will be spent on rebates for passengers.

An engineer's train broke down near Tai Wo Station and remained on the tracks during the morning rush hour and up until lunchtime. Officials said intervals between trains were as long as 24 minutes at some stations during the disruption.

“According to the preliminary information submitted by the MTR, this incident triggered the service performance rebate mechanism. This means the MTR will need to set aside at least HK$1 million as rebates for passengers,” Deputy Secretary for Transport and Logistics Kirk Yip told lawmakers on Friday.

Yip said the government has asked for a report into the incident within a month and wants to know what caused the train to break down and what improvement measures MTR officials come up with in case of similar issues in future.

The MTR's Managing Director for Hong Kong Transport Services, Jeny Yeung, told legislators the company will learn from the incident and will look at how repairs can be carried out quicker if such a situation happens again.