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Ada Lee


Jack Kwan Wai-kay's family almost disowned him when he started working at Hongkong Tramways.
Now, 25 years later, Kwan is glad to have followed his dream - all the way to the company's 110th anniversary celebrations.
He had always wanted to become a tram driver, he said, because "the uniform was cool and the vehicles were iconic", although, with his university qualifications from Taiwan, he started out as an inspector and is now a traffic controller.
The job went against the wishes of his family, who had wanted him to help out with their paper business after his return from Taiwan. "My parents told me to move out and never go back when I told them [I had a job in Tramways]," Kwan, 59, recalled. "They said I wasn't helping out, but the business just bored me."
He left the family business to his sister. "I did move out, but we still contacted each other," he said.

Kwan's passion for trams also influenced his wife, Wendy Chan, who joined Tramways as well after they married.
And, as if their daily working lives around trams is not enough, the family have their own model track in the living room, complete with a model tram and photos of the scenery along the "route".
Chan said that when she joined the company in 1999, she sold monthly passes. A year later, she switched to counting coins.
Before the Octopus card came into use, a coin box could weigh 13kg to 18kg, she said.
Nowadays, each box is about 9kg, and she uses a machine that differentiates between coins to calculate the amounts in 15 to 25 boxes a day. The rest is counted by an external company.
Sometimes, those boxes threw up more than coins. "Once, there was a gold necklace with earrings tied to it, and another time, there was a chocolate coin," Chan said.
A colleague, Shirley Tse Oi-kwan, has even found supermarket coupons in the boxes.
Chan's and Tse's stories are featured in a new book titled,  The Tram, its People, its Parts, its Stories.
The book will go on sale from Wednesday during the seven-day Book Fair at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, to celebrate Tramways' 110th anniversary.
The company will also hold an open day at its Whitty Street depot in Sai Wan on July 30 and 31.



Tramways veteran followed his dream despite being disowned by family

Long-serving Hong Kong Tramways employee Yeung Kwongchuen cleans a tram at the Whitty Street depot. The trams, known throughout the world as a symbol of Hong Kong, have been part of the city for 110 years. The company is celebrating the anniversary, culminating in open days at the depot in Sai Wan on July 30 and 31. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Jack Kwan tracked future to a life on trams

Shirley Tse (left) and Wendy Chan, along with Chan's husband Jack Kwan (top), are all long-term tram employees. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

News

Hong Kong

Jack Kwan Wai-kay's family almost disowned him when he started working at Hongkong Tramways. Now, 25 years later, Kwan is glad to have followed his dream - all the way to the company's 110th anniversary celebrations.
