Rail disaster: The two MTR trains after a collision on the Tsuen Wan Line during a test of the company
HONG KONG: A train collision disrupted services in Hong Kong, threatening commuter chaos during rush hour in the heart of the Asian financial hub, authorities said.
Yesterday’s rare disruption on a network used by nearly six million people every weekday brought services to a halt between the stations of Central and Admiralty, rail operator MTR Corp said.
“The repair will take quite a long time and the service between Central and Admiralty ... will not be available for the whole day,” its operations director Lau Tin-shing told a news briefing.
An investigation into the incident has already begun, although the trains carried no passengers when the crash happened.
At the time of the collision, a new signal system was undergoing a trial run.
The drivers of both trains were taken to hospital, the network operator said, urging commuters to use other forms of travel or different rail routes.
Shares of MTR fell more than one per cent in early trade, lagging a gain of 0.3% in the benchmark index. — AP
