Safe, Reliable Transport

The company’s safety standards, while outstanding in the global CoMET ratings, continue to improve against our own internal targets. In 2004, three passengers committed suicide on the MTR network. However, no accidents resulting in fatalities among passengers, staff or contractors occurred, and injuries among staff and contractors were at the lowest accident rate in more than five years, at 0.050 per every one million passengers. With the progressive completion of platform screen doors, it is expected that suicide attempts and track tresspassing will be reduced. All safety targets for 2004 were again achieved and a more stringent set for 2005 established, again seeking further internal improvement in performance. The health and safety not only of customers but of staff, contractors and the wider community are central to our service planning and delivery. The guidelines, tools and communication mechanisms for health and safety are embodied in the Code of Conduct, 10 safety objectives, customer safety campaigns, on-site training programmes and contractual compliance procedures. These are devised and managed through a hierarchy of committees that start with the Executive Directorate policy committee and are subsequently imposed through a seven-step cyclic management process to implement, monitor and audit procedures with a view to improvement on a continuous basis.

Our responsibility to the customer and community extends beyond rail transport. We play a pivotal role in establishing and shaping new ommunities through active participation in property developments along our transit routes. This involves our sharing in the planning, design and project delivery of MTR stations and the surrounding built environment. Under our business model of rail + property we own retail and commercial space as well as manage residential estates and commercial facilities adjacent to our stations.