Lam Tin MTR station service suspended during peak hours on 2 consecutive days due to equipment malfunction

The MTR Corporation has suspended services at Lam Tin station during peak hours on two consecutive days due to equipment malfunctions, one of which triggered a small fire near the railway track.

The railway company announced near 10am on Wednesday that services had resumed following an almost 2-hour suspension after MTR staff noticed smoke coming from the platform.

Some commuters were annoyed by the service suspension and expressed their dissatisfaction to MTR staff, Cable TV reported.

It was the second such incident at Lam Tin MTR station in two days.

On Tuesday, services at the station were halted from around 5.30pm due to a fire breaking out near the railway track, leaving crowds of passengers waiting until they were told there would not be any trains running.

Online photos showed screens inside the station displaying flashing notices that read: “Serious Incident – Please leave the station immediately.”

The MTR Corporation said an insulating component of a switch near the tracks at Lam Tin station was suspected to have caught fire after a short circuit, local media reported.

Lam Tin station was temporarily closed, and train services between Kwun Tong station and Tiu Keng Leng station were suspended.

Train services between Kwun Tong station and Whampoa station operated at reduced frequencies.

Services at Lam Tin station resumed at around 6.30pm after firefighters extinguished the fire.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday noon, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan called on the MTR Corporation to investigate the incidents and review train safety as soon as possible.

She said the government was extremely concerned about the incidents and told the transport company to file a report about them within one month.

MTR Corporation said it was investigating the cause of the two incidents. HKFP has reached out to the company for a response.

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Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing.