The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving Hong Kong. Growing from the 1970s, it has now become one of the most important public transport system in the world. Operated by the MTR Corporation, it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network serving the urbanised areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. The system now included 245.3 km of rail with 179 stations, including 99 heavy rail stations, 68 light rail stops and 1 high-speed rail terminus.
During the 1960s, the government of Hong Kong saw a need to accommodate increasing road traffic as Hong Kong’s economy grew rapidly. On 1 September 1967, the consultants submitted the Hong Kong Mass Transport Study to the government, which recommended the construction of a 40-mile (64 km) rail syst
em in Hong Kong.
In 1972, the Hong Kong government authorised construction of the Initial System, a 20-kilometre (12 mi) system that roughly translates to today’s Kwun Tong line between Kwun Tong and Prince Edward, Tsuen Wan line between Mei Foo and Admiralty, and Island line between Sheung Wan and Admiralty.
Since 1980s, due to the rapid development of the city centre, Hong Kong government started to construct new towns and tried to build new railway lines to link residents in those new towns to the city centre. Plus the granted city plan North Lantau Development Investigation established at the end of 20th century, new metro lines are introduced to link the Islands to Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The new lines Tung Chung Line and the AirPort Express are built for this.
MTR–KCR merger further enriched the railway lines under the MTR map. Since 2007, the lines like East Rail Line which were under the controlled of KCR also operated by MTR. The East Rail Line and Tuen Ma Line joined the network of MTR. That almost formed the network shape of MTR today.
Since then, MTR also had several times of lines extension, but those constructions didn’t change the map a lot. Till today, MTR is still the most frequently used mass transportation in Hong Kong, which has become a cultural signal tightly connected to Hong Kong.
Tags: comparison, HongKong, MTR