More than 517,000 Hongkongers travelled to mainland China on the first day of the long weekend on Friday, prompting the city’s rail operator to take stopgap measures to ease overcrowding at two border crossings in a move criticised by a lawmaker.
Dominic Lee Tsz-king, deputy chairman of the Legislative Council’s transport panel, on Friday accused the MTR Corporation of sacrificing the interests of residents in the city’s northern districts.
He said that authorities should have asked bus companies to provide more services while non-franchised peers could also be enlisted to help fill the gap of passenger demand.
At the centre of the MTR Corp’s ad hoc service arrangement was the termination of some northbound trains on the East Rail line at Tai Po Market station, rather than going further north from Tai Wo to the border crossing stations of Lo Wu or the Lok Ma Chau spur line.
This would ease overcrowding at the two railway-accessible land crossings.
“To manage the flow of people, adjustments have been made to East Rail line services,” the rail giant said.
