Reader Respond Draft 3


In the article, “Dubbed ‘the best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong’s MTR rail system,” Khaw (as quoted in Lee, 2015) was full of praises on Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and highlighted that the standards of MTR should be used as the basic criterion for railway operator in other countries. Firstly, Lee stated that Hong Kong's railway is one of the most profitable revenue and mentioned that due to hundreds of different stations, it carried millions of passengers daily across the entire coverage network distance of 221km. Lee also commented that MTR encountered a significant small number of minor delays as it spends more than one third of MTR Corporation’s (MTRC) revenue on rail maintenance, as well as conducting frequent quality check to maintain the system. In addition, Lee remarked that MTRC was highly efficient in manpower and dealing with crowd control measures to broadcast critical information to it respective stations when a problem occurred. With all these measurements, MTR was one of the best railway operator in terms of maintaining the high standard of efficiency that it has.

One of the reasons why Hong Kong’s MTR is efficient is due to the facts that it only faced a significant minor percentage of train delays. In the article, “How successful is Hong Kong’s MTR compared to S’pore’s MRT? Unbelievable. Out of this world.” Lay (2016) states that for the first half of 2014, Hong Kong commuters experienced a delay of at least five minutes in only one out of every 300,000km travelled. On the other hand, Singapore SMRT’s suffers from an average of one disruption for every 133,000 km. This is one of the most important factor because if the trains keep delay as time goes by, commuters will lose faith and confidence towards it operator. If this happen, there will be a drop in revenue and might deal with financial issues.  

Another reason why Hong Kong’s MTR is efficiency is also due to its high investment on maintenance and manpower. In the article, “Look to Hong Kong’s MTR for lessons,” Wong (2015) states that MTR can replace a 60m rail piece in 150 minutes and within the constraints of its daily maintenance window, which is from 1am to 5am. This is executed by over 1,000 workers focused primarily on maintenance work for the rail lines. Compared to Singapore SMRT’s, it only inspects the entire track system, tunnels and viaducts once every four to seven days as well as lacking of skilled staffs in the railway engineering field. I believe that in order for commuters to have a smoother journey, the investment to maintain, upgrades, and renewal to its system is very crucial. From this, it shows that Hong Kong’s MTR is one of a good example on how to maintain it high efficiency on maintenance.

As mentioned from the sources above, Hong Kong’s MTR shows that in order to maintain a low percentage of train breaking down, it required daily maintenance check through the use of massive manpower and equipment. Thus, making Hong Kong’s MTR one of the best railway operating system to maintain it high efficiency and standards.



References:

Lee, M.K. Dubbed 'the best in class': 6 things about Hong Kong's MTR rail system. (2015). The Straits Time. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from


Lay, Belmont. How successful is Hong Kong’s MTR compared to S’pore’s MRT? (2016). Mothership. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from


Wong, S.S. Look to Hong Kong's MTR for lessons. (2015). The Straits Time. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from

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