OLIVER CHOU OLIVER.CHOU@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 14 October, 2015, 2:29pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 14 October, 2015, 2:40pm
Protesters carrying large musical instruments rally at Tai Wai MTR station on October 3. Photo: Sam Tsang
A recent increase in enforcement action against commuters carrying oversized luggage on MTR trains stems from a request by the government, legislators have heard from Hong Kong’s transport minister.
Frontline staff executed the policy strictly according to the MTR Corporation’s bylaws without exercising discretionary power, Secretary for Transport and Housing Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said this morning.
Cheung was responding to legislator Ma Fung-kwok’s question about whether the government was aware of the underlying reason why the MTR Corp had been implementing luggage size restrictions at its facilities more stringently since last month.
“Because of a rise in the number of passengers carrying large objects in recent years, including parallel-goods traders at some of the stations, there are strong calls in society to address that and the government asked the MTR Corp to carry out the bylaws [regarding oversized luggage] strictly,” Cheung said.
“Size restrictions vary from place to place in the world, depending on each rail operation. Compared to other systems, Hong Kong lies somewhere in the middle.
“But when compared to Singapore, the system there is stricter than Hong Kong’s,” he added without elaboration.
The minister also quoted the MTR Corp as saying its 4,000 frontline staff had no discretionary authority in executing the relevant bylaws.
“It explained that the daily flow of 5.4 million passengers might result in some cases of oversized luggage going undetected,” Cheung said.
“One can imagine the resulting chaos if all 4,000 frontline staff exercised their own discretionary power according to different standards.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1867455/hong-kong-government-admits-asking-mtr-enforce
