MTR.

I’ve been taking the MTR to work (and back home) everyday lately, not just because that it’s slightly faster, but also because the walk to the Lam Tin MTR station provides me with an opportunity to move that lazy body of mine. The walk is short – about only 15 minutes – but it still is some form of exercise. OK I hear you laugh.

Anyway I just feel like sharing some things that I see or experience in my MTR journeys to and from Lam Tin and Cheung Sha Wan. I’m sure they aren’t uncommon, but nonetheless they just looked weird to me.

While traveling to Cheung Sha Wan from Lam Tin, I have to get off at Prince Edward to change to another train from the Tsuen Wan Line. Because Cheung Sha Wan is just 2 stops away from Prince Edward, I always try to find the most strategic position to stand on the train such that it would be easy for me to get off and at the same time I would not be blocking others (which usually mean somewhere in front of the 2nd seat from the end of the row of seats). The funny thing (or maybe it wasn’t so funny after all) that happened yesterday was that 3 persons – a schoolgirl, a middle-aged woman and a middle-aged man – got on at Prince Edward and decided that they would stand right in front of the door. I initially thought that they would be getting off at Sham Shui Po, the immediate next stop, so I didn’t pay too much attention to them initially. Then what happened was that when the train pulled over at Sham Shui Po, none of them moved. So they remained standing right in front of the door. During the short 30 seconds or so that the train stopped at Sham Shui Po, I saw 2 people have to get on from another door because these 3 people simply refused to move away from their position. The worst thing was I saw a young man apparently wanting to get onto the train at the last minute almost getting his body hit by the closing door because of these 3 people. The door was closing, and if there was a space for him to get on he probably would have, but there wasn’t any, and the man had to back off from the door because he knew he couldn’t get on. I could see the anger on his face, and I was actually a bit pissed as well. I don’t condone dashing onto the train at the last minute, but to block others’ way such that they can’t get onto the train wasn’t exactly a nice thing to do as well, especially there was still quite a bit of room in the train itself.

Then I was traveling from Cheung Sha Wan back to Lam Tin in the evening, and as usual the train was packed. I was lucky to have gotten a small space to stand near the left-sided door (I get on from the right-sided door at Cheung Sha Wan but would get off at Prince Edward from the left-sided door). As the train pulls over at Prince Edward, I suddenly saw a woman appearing in front of me. Apparently she had gone below my arm that was holding onto the vertical handrail. I didn’t really understand why she found the need to do that, especially when I have already moved forward to anticipate getting off the train. When the door opened, she immediately dashed out from the door and ran towards the other side of the platform – while the other train was nowhere in sight. So what happened was that she wanted to be the first person to reach the other platform. It would have been understandable if the other train was there, but the amusing thing was that even though she was the first to reach the other side, I still managed to get onto the other train before her because her entry point was blocked by exiting passengers on that train, while I was given a full clear path. When I got on the train I just thought… “all these trouble for what?”

Every morning when I get out from the Cheung Sha Wan train station, there would always be a few old women standing at the exit at the ground level to collect those free newspapers that people have finished reading and get rid of. While I think that’s perfectly fine, the behaviour and the position of these old women were nothing impressive for me. As far as behaviour is concerned, they usually would automatically assume that as long as you are holding those free newspaper in your hand while getting out from the station, you wouldn’t want them. So what they did is either hold up their hands and anticipate that you pass the papers to them, or outrightly grab the paper from your hand, whether you have any intentions of giving it to them or not. Then for positions, I probably wouldn’t have bothered if they were standing by the side of the exit, but they apparently don’t:

They always stand right in the middle of the human traffic flow, and I honestly don’t think that’s such a nice thing to do, even if they are at the age that they are at. I know I should be compassionate, but when they are blocking your passage way, it’s really hard to be compassionate, if you ask me.

It’s people like these that make an otherwise boring MTR trip interesting. While I don’t necessarily like what they do, it’s still worth a mention.