The MTR Corporation needs to pay special attention to customer distress incidents, Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao says.

The Government today received the Lloyd's Register Rail's report on the MTR's performance, and Dr Liao said properly addressing customer distress is one of the most important areas in which the corporation should improve.

She said although the report states that the railway's overall services are up to international standard, it has set out 16 recommendations for service improvement.

Dr Liao said the review looked into the maintenance and repair programme, comparing the figures of the internal maintenance team with those from outsourcing.

"At the moment, there is no indication that outsourcing is a cause for additional incidents. Of course, they will monitor it very carefully," she said, adding she is satisfied with the report, and will conduct a detailed analysis of it before making a report to the Legislative Council in March.