Exploring the Airport Express side of Tsing Yi MTR Station

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I'm sure some dedicated railfans already know about everything I am going to talk about in this page, but I can't find a place that mentioned any of these so I decided to do it myself. I am going to talk about U3 first because it was this floor that made me interested in the Airport Express side of Tsing Yi station - a friend asked me if I knew anything about U3 and I dug deeper. I will not cover U5 - the Operations Control Centre because unlike U3, I can't even get photos of the place, maybe until MTR decide to organise more guided tours to the control centre.

U3 - The inaccessible unpaid area, the covered lift button, and the staircases

There is basically no information aside from the fact that U3 is supposedly a Mezzanine floor in the unpaid area. If you look at any station layout of Tsing Yi (I say any because there are a few versions), you will see a single staircase at the Airport-end of U4 that is seemingly the only publicly accessible connection to U3. However, that staircase, and in fact the entirety of U3, is not open to the public. If you look at the MTR Shops Directory, you will find another staircase on U3 that doesn't seem to go anywhere.

If you take a ride on the lifts connecting ground floor to U6 (PL01, PL02, or PL03), you will find that there is space reserved for U3 but the button is covered and no explanation is provided. However, the LED Display of the lifts show "SHOPS" when lifts pass U3.

There are actually more visible staircases that connect U3 with other floors than the one shown in the station layout, I believe there are at least five. There are visible staircases on both the Airport and Hong Kong ends connecting U2, U3, and U4, but they are fenced off. They have codes assigned to them, small pieces of paper with the staircase designation printed on them are taped to the staircases: the one on the Airport end is ST44 (or S16) and the one on the Hong Kong end is ST45 (or S25). The staircase in the station layout is half of ST44 (S16) between U3 and U4, with the remaining half between U2 and U3 being omitted for some reason.

The emergency staircases on both ends on the floors U2 and U4, which are less visible, probably connect to U3 as well. These emergency staircases might also connect to other floors such as U5 and U6 and have their own designations but I didn't approach these to check because I don't want to be more suspicious than I already am.

The fifth staircase is actually the only one that allows you to see U3 properly (other than the lifts passing U3): the staircase designated ST121 (or S24) next to the escalator that connects U2 to U4. There is an opening on the wall and allows you to take a look at U3, but it is fenced so you can only take some photos from that opening.

U3 is not a "full floor", you can look up from U2 to see the edge of U3. In one of the photos below, a sign saying Shops can be seen. The sign is pointing towards ST45 (S25), and we know U3 is meant to be a floor for shops based what we can see from the lift display. I think this sign was not changed or removed because it is also pointing towards the general direction of the staircase down to U1 - the Tung Chung Line concourse with many real shops. Ironically, the only actual shop on U2 that I am aware of, a book store, is on the opposite direction of where the sign is pointing.

U2 - The MTR Safety Experience Zone

Other than the artwork "Ocean Garden" hanging from the ceiling, you can find the "MTR Safety Experience Zone". However, this Zone is only staffed when there are group visits from registered kindergartens, primary schools, and charitable organizations. There is also a shop of People On Board, the enterprise that worked with MTR to create the Zone. This Zone will be temporarily closed from Y2026-M10-D22, it is not clear if the Zone will be removed completely and if the People On Board shop will be vacated after this date.

U4 - Ancient Octopus card enquiry machines, vacant shops, and the boarded up ATM

Other than the artwork "Birds of a Feather" hanging from the ceiling, you can find a heavily armoured boarded up ATM Service Centre known as TSY-ATM14 6003 (I am not sure why they boarded it up), a closed shop storing more props (likely used for the "MTR Safety Experience Zone" on U2), and two Octopus card enquiry machines (073 and 076) with a background showing the MTR network map when the West Rail Line terminated at Nam Cheong (so that graphic must be Y2009 or earlier).

In older versions of the station layout, there was a Bank of China ATM on U4 at the exact same location. As for the Octopus card enquiry machines, they still work in Y2026. 076, with a smaller display, only shows the current balance, MTR points, and the previous six changes in balance; 073, with a larger (but also more blurred) display, shows four more previous changes in balance (ten in total), the Automatic Add Value Service top-up amount, student Octopus valid date, and the date and method of the most recent top-up. The student Octopus valid date row might be replaced by something else if you tap with an adult Octopus card, I am not sure.

U6

U6 is only accessible by lift. As you come out from the lift, from your left to right, you will see the doors to the carpark, the Tsing Yi Station Car Park Shroff, a Rado clock that is not in use, a small space with a blank sign stand, the emergency exit doors, an LED display that is not showing anything, and finally an extremely long hallway with no signage explaining where it leads to.