Rail giant opens up its control room to media and talks about the daily life of controllers – and a taboo dim sum dish no one dares to eat. — SCMP
In a busy 700 square metre control room in Tsing Yi at the heart of Hong Kong’s busy MTR network, 100 staff no longer dare to eat a particular dim sum dish after it came to be unexpectedly associated with bad luck.
From frontline controllers to Cheris Lee Yuen-ling, the MTR Corporation’s chief of operating and metro segment, not one is willing to risk eating glutinous rice with chicken for breakfast or lunch.
“It happened many years ago when a traffic controller was about to consume a piece of steamed glutinous rice (with) chicken – the one wrapped with a lotus leaf for breakfast,” Lee recalled.
“And then the system started to have many ad hoc situations. He could not have it until dinner. That’s why there is a joke (about) not to take this food for breakfast or for lunch; otherwise, you will have a busy day.”
The bustling control centre oversees 10 of the city’s train lines, but does not cover light rail services in Yuen Long and Tuen Mun or the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.
Lee described the room in Tsing Yi station as the “brain” of Hong Kong’s rail network.
She recently granted the media unprecedented access to the space, showing the Post what a day in the life of an MTR controller was like.
The high-ceilinged control room could be compared to the ones used to oversee space shuttle launches, with three ground-to-ceiling gigantic monitors arrayed before rows of frontline staff.
The space also serves as a war room for the MTR Corp’s top brass, including its chairman and CEO, in the event of an emergency or other special circumstances.
The Post learned that during the 2019 anti-government protests, the company was on its highest alert and had top management at the centre to scrutinise operations and devise strategies in response to any incidents.
In the room, level after level of control stations brightly illuminate the space, each desk equipped with monitors displaying real-time rail service updates. Staff can track various trains with colourful markers or check cameras in stations across the city.
They also keep in touch with train captains using a communications log system that appears similar to an internet chat room.
The right side of the room is given over to an engineering team, which uses the gigantic monitors to study environmental data such as trains’ air-conditioning and ventilation levels.
The control centre runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It takes three shifts of 40 staff each to supervise the city’s rail network on a daily basis, covering 10 heavy rail lines and 98 stations across the city.
The site even oversees the South Island line’s driverless trains, all operated by experienced controllers.
The whole system handles more than 5,300 train trips each day, ensuring transport for more than 5 million daily passengers.
Lee noted the city’s Kwun Tong, Island and Tsuen Wan lines typically ran at intervals as frequent as every two minutes during morning peak hours.
By comparison, Tokyo Subway’s Tozai line runs trains at 30-second intervals at peak times and London’s Victoria line has one every 100 seconds.
“[The MTR system] is a very high intensity railway network that we are delivering,” Lee said.
When the MTR Corp was founded on Oct 1, 1979, its rail network was controlled from a tiny room in the Kowloon Bay depot.
But since 1998, the Tsing Yi centre has assumed control of train operations for the Airport Express and the Tung Chung Line, and later expanded to cover other urban lines.
Lee noted that technological advancements were essential to supporting operations.
“Recently, we used the speech-to-text technology to help ... identify any gaps or disparity between the communications of the train captains and the traffic controllers,” she said.
“It helps us to react faster to any critical information or any ad hoc situations that we need to deal with.”
Despite its robust system, the rail operator has grappled with several high-profile delays this year.
On the morning of February 29, train services on the Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong and Island lines reported delays of up to eight minutes, before MTR staff fixed signalling system issues about five hours later.
After working for more than three decades at the MTR Corp, Lee said the company’s success hinged on dedication and teamwork across departments.
“My staff, especially the train captains, need to get up very early every day to prepare the trains for service in the morning,” she said.
“I think it is the commitment of our train captains. They are so professional that ... they may sacrifice some of their personal or social life.” – South China Morning Post
