Providing transport services for some 2.5 million passengers on a weekday basis establishes us as a permanent fixture in society. How we continue to improve ourselves as a community asset drives the agenda for service excellence and influences our strategy of building modern communities linked by a network of transport hubs.
On the existing rail network, the strategy to develop rail-linked community centres has fostered a broader scope to services with more frequent and varied in-station amenities, programmes and cultural activities. We have installed concourse counters for convenient internet access, opened stations to numerous community awareness drives, sponsored some 120 local community projects during the year and conducted campaigns to promote travel safety and healthy lifestyle programmes in our stations.
The Art in MTR programme thrives. A dedicated "arttube" has been established in Central Station for a walk-through art gallery experience, several installation art exhibitions have been staged to support the local arts community and panels have been erected in most stations to invite local schools and social centres to display their artistic endeavours. Our Living Art programme stages music and dance performances, poetry readings and childrens' activities in selected station concourses. With these numerous activities ongoing, we publish an online information page on our customer website announcing where and when to "experience" art within our network.
In addition to our rail network initiatives, we promote and support broader social awareness causes. Identifying physical health as a society-wide issue, we teamed up with the Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association to promote walking as a healthy habit. In April 2005, we staged the first of the annual MTR Race Walking events. Over 800 participants "walked" for charity, raising nearly HK$ 1 million to fund future health education activities. In recognition of our membership to the greater global community, in early 2005, we donated over HK$ 2 million for the relief work of the South Asia tsunami and opened our stations and shopping malls to charities aiding this cause.
