ABOUT MTR

This section describes the MTR Corporation's business both from a local and international context; and the corporate governance involved in managing our business activities.

The MTR Corporation Limited (MTR) came into existence on 30 June 2000, succeeding the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, which had been established in 1975 as a Government owned statutory Corporation. With a daily patronage of over 2.3 million passengers, the MTR is one of the most intensively utilised mass transit railway systems in the world, transporting 1 in 3 of Hong Kong's population every day. Total patronage of the MTR Lines and Airport Express Line was 777 million in 2003. Furthermore, MTR's daily patronage reached a record 3.24 million on Christmas Eve 2003.

Through effective and efficient management in planning, design, operations, and maintenance of its railway services, MTR has been confirmed by recent benchmarking studies as one of the world's finest railways for reliability, customer service and cost-efficiency (1). MTR currently operates 116.7 km of railway, comprising 6 railway lines (including the Airport Express) with 50 stations, of which 15 are interchanges to provide convenient transfer between the different lines.

In recent years, MTR has not only concentrated on serving the people of Hong Kong, but has also been active in developing our business beyond Hong Kong.

In addition to railway operation, development and associated businesses, MTR engages in the development, sale and management of residential and commercial properties above and adjacent to its stations and depots in partnership with property developers. MTR has also retained a number of shopping centres as long-term investments and provides property management services to almost 50,000 residential units and four shopping centres.

CoMET is an international railway benchmarking programme, conducted annually by the Railway Technology Centre of Imperial College, London. It is made up of a group of eleven of the world's largest metropolitan railways (metros). The metros are in major cities in Europe, Asia and the Americas and each have than 500 million passengers per year. CoMET's most recent Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Report was presented at its annual meeting in October 2003.


MTR's performance was benchmarked against those of its international counterparts using KPIs related to Customers, Internal Processes, Safety and Finance. MTR was ranked as the top metro in terms of asset utilization, having the densest capacity per route kilometer but slipped to the number two position in terms of customer service, as teething problems on the new Tseung Kwan O Line affected passenger journeys on time . Identities of the other metropolitan railways in the CoMET Report have been removed to maintain confidentiality.

Further CoMET results on Staff Efficiency and Fatalities are presented in the Social Responsibility Section.