Hong Kong’s rail network is being transformed by the Shatin to Central Link project, with the final change to train fleet having just kicked off – cutting back the length of East Rail line trains from 12 cars to 9.
The Shatin to Central Link project is seeing the East Rail line extended under Victoria Harbour from Hung Hom to Admiralty, via a fourth cross harbour tunnel, along with an intermediate station at Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.
But these two new stations have a limitation – the platforms are only nine carriages long, too short for the 12-car long trains currently used on the East Rail Line, so a fleet reconfiguration is taking place:
- The 40 year old Metro-Cammell trains are being retired,
- SP1900 trains on the West Rail line have been extended from 7 to 8 cars,
- SP1900 trains on Ma On Shan line have been extended from 4 to 8 cars, and
- 43 new 9-car Hyundai Rotem EMUs have been purchased for the East Rail Line.
The MTR Corporation believes the shorter trains will be able to handle the expected patronage.
The new 9-car trains, with their wider body and newly designed interior, will provide a more spacious and comfortable travelling environment for passengers. They are equipped with dynamic route maps and gangway displays, providing more information for passengers during their journeys. Passengers will be able to ride on the new EAL trains from mid-2020 when the first of the new 9-car trains enters service.
With the extension of the Ma On Shan line into urban Kowloon, including an interchange to the Kwun Tong line at Diamond Hill.
And a massive new interchange at Hung Hom.
Relieving pressure on the existing East Rail Line service.
The busiest section of the East Rail Line (ERL) is the section from Tai Wai Station to Kowloon Tong Station, which is currently the only way to the urban areas for commuters of the ERL and the Ma On Shan Line (MOL).
In this regard, the SCL section between Tai Wai and Hung Hom scheduled for completion in 2018 will connect with the West Rail Line (WRL) and the MOL to form the “East West Corridor” (EWC). The 7-car trains running in WRL and 4-car trains in MOL will altogether become 8-car trains running along EWC. As such, the railway link will not only increase the carrying capacity, but will also play a vital part in diversion of passengers.
In 2020, the SCL will extend to Admiralty and form the “North South Corridor” (NSC) with the ERL. Upon full commissioning of the NSC, we estimate that about 20% of the passengers from the section between Tai Wai and Kowloon Tong will switch to the SCL for onward trips to Kowloon East and Hong Kong Island, thus alleviating the loading of the ERL.
The MTR also stated that building stations for 12 car long trains on Hong Kong Island was not possible.
The underground utilities and foundations of buildings along the northern shore of Hong Kong Island is congested, leaving limited sites or space for the construction of railway stations. As such, trains running along the NSC connecting Lo Wu Station and Admiralty Station will have to be changed from 12-car trains currently serving the ERL to 9-car trains.
And that the upgraded signalling system would allow more trains to run than before.
To tie in with the enhancement of the signalling system, however, the headway will be shortened from about three minutes currently to about two minutes during peak hours, enabling the NSC to operate with a carrying capacity similar to that of the ERL.
6 February 2021 saw the first 9-car train run in revenue service on the East Rail Line.
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“Mixed fleet operations” with existing 12-car trains requiring extra signage on platforms.
MTR Corporation photo
Telling passengers where to board the shorter trains.
MTR Corporation photo
Along with extra information on the passenger information displays to show the length of upcoming trains.
MTR Corporation photo
The transition to shorter trains is expected to be complete by the end of 2021.
Footnote on first class carriages
The MTR East Rail line is unusual in having a ‘First Class’ carriage on each service.
The new 9-car long trains are no different, which has an interesting side effect – the First Class section now takes up 11% of train capacity, compared to the previous 8%.
And signalling delays
Back in April 2020 the MTR Corporation announced that the introduction of new 9-car trains on the East Rail line would occur in mid-2020.
MTR Corporation photo
Stating in their media release.
The MTR Corporation announced today that construction of the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) will achieve a new project milestone in mid-2020, with the commissioning of the new signalling system and the introduction of new 9-car trains into passenger service in preparing for the extension of the East Rail Line (EAL) across the harbour to Admiralty Station.
Meanwhile, the new 9-car trains will be introduced as a required standard to cope with space constraints on the tracks on Hong Kong Island. The existing 12-car trains will gradually be replaced by new 9-car trains under a programme that would take place by phases over the coming 18 months.
“The new 9-car trains will gradually replace the existing 12-car trains over a period of time. For a while there will be a mix of 9 and 12-car trains, ie Mixed Fleet Operations. We will ensure that comprehensive measures will be introduced to facilitate passenger familiarization with the arrangements for Mixed Fleet Operations,” said Mr Sammy Wong, Chief of Operating of MTR Corporation.
“Passengers will be guided by prominent signage, clear public announcements and additional customer service staff in stations. We would like to thank passengers in advance for their cooperation in helping us through this critical stage of the project,” he added.
And some prophetic words.
“The new signalling system and the new trains have already gone through stringent testing, as is the case for all new train introduction and new major signalling system enhancements. In the event of unforeseeable teething problems in the initial period of this work, the Corporation has prepared a contingency plan to deal with any railway service disruption and our team of engineers and contractors will continue to work closely in a professional manner to ensure that any impact to customers and train service is kept to a minimum,” said Mr Wong. “We will strive to deal with the issue quickly while providing timely information and assistance.”
August 2020 saw the ‘go’ date set for the new trains and signalling system.
The MTR Corporation announced today (28 August 2020) that, in preparation for extending the East Rail Line (EAL) across the harbour to Admiralty Station, the commissioning of the new
signalling system on the EAL will take place on 12 September 2020 (Saturday). From this date, new 9-car trains will be progressively introduced on the EAL. This is an important milestone for Shatin to Central Link (SCL) project.
But the changeover was cancelled at the last minute.
MTR has postponed the commissioning of signalling and the rollout of new trains on the East Rail Line (EAL), following the discovery of technical issues with the signalling system.
The announcement was abruptly made by the operator on September 11 shortly before commissioning of signalling on the line was due to begin. The news follows the discovery of route-setting problems, which could potentially cause a train to deviate from its intended route, and instead follow the train in front to its destination.
MTR says it will wait until a technical solution has been found before redeploying the new signalling system. However, it insists that the issue does not pose a safety risk due to the network’s use of automatic train protection (ATP).
The signalling was installed by Siemens as part of a $HK 850m ($US 109.7m) contract awarded in December 2012 for the upgrading of signalling on the EAL.
MTR says it will set up an investigation panel in response to the issue, which is expected to submit a report to the Hong Kong government within three months.
The panel is chaired by Mr Edmund Leung, former president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and is expected to make inquiries into MTR’s knowledge of, and response to the technical issues, the operator’s internal reporting processes, and whether the process for informing the government was timely or appropriate. The panel may also recommend measures to address these issues.
December 2020 saw the MTR Corporation receive the investigation panel report.
The MTR Corporation announced today (10 December 2020) that it has received the Report from the Investigation Panel looking into the postponement of the commissioning of East Rail Line new signalling system.
The Investigation Panel has been briefed on the initial findings of the technical investigation conducted in parallel by the Corporation. The main tasks of the technical investigation are to confirm the root cause of the issue leading to the postponement, and to identify the technical solution.
It is noted by both the Investigation Panel and the technical investigation team that the issue has not affected railway safety. In consultation with the Government departments involved, the Corporation is continuing to test the new signalling system to ensure the effectiveness of the technical solution and smooth train operations.
“The additional tests will be conducted during non-traffic hours. We believe they will ensure the effectiveness of the technical solution to the issue identified in the complex new signalling system. East Rail Line train service will continue to run normally using existing trains under the existing signalling system,” said the spokesperson.
With the cause of the issues made public in January 2021.
Safety has been reaffirmed by the technical investigation, which has shown that the concerned issue was caused by a non-safety critical software module being overloaded by a new software module specifically built for the Corporation to provide extra train monitoring information to the Operations Control Centre. The contractor has resolved the issue by upgrading the software and stopping the new software module. The Investigation Panel has during its course of the investigation referenced the findings of the technical investigation.
Subsequent to the deferral of the planned Mixed Fleet Operation (MFO) of the East Rail Line (EAL) on 12 September 2020 due to the “Route Recall (RR)” Issue of the Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) subsystem in the new signalling system, a technical investigation on the root cause of the RR Issue together with other technical issues related to the launching of EAL new signalling system has been conducted by the Technical Investigation Core Team comprising MTR Operations and Projects teams, Siemens (the Contractor) and External Technical Advisors.
The Core Team has conducted a series of simulation and train testing in the non-traffic hours (NTH) on 12, 19 and 28 October 2020 and reviewed all the observed results to ascertain the root cause of the RR Issue and develop the technical solutions.
The investigation confirmed that the RR Issue is not a safety issue but a service reliability issue. It could lead to potential routing of a train to an unintended destination and may generate false “Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD)” alarms.
It was attributed to the unexpected high volume of data in the new Fault Classification Update (FCU) software routine between two ATS modules, which was a non-standard software specifically built by the Contractor as an add-on feature to fulfil MTRCL’s requirement to provide extra train monitoring information to the Traffic Controller in Operations Control Centre (OCC). The root cause of the RR Issue is due to the software defect in the new FCU software routine which was not identified during testing carried out by the Contractor.
