This little transport story is not that far-fetched. Several of the elements to make it come true have been on the government's agenda for years, perhaps even too long. That's why many wonder if they will be realised in the next 10 years.

The handover is remembered as a golden era for planning and infrastructure. Landmark projects included the airport at Chek Lap Kok and the world's sixth-largest suspension bridge, Tsing Ma, which opened in 1997. The government at the time vowed to continue spending up to HK$30 billion a year on roads, reclamation, port facilities and the most important of all - railway construction.

But as the decade unfolded, progress on infrastructure projects disappointed many. The Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, for example, has been debated for more than a decade yet is still far from a reality. Other pre-handover projects, such as the Central-Wan Chai bypass and its central P2 road, have been tied down for nearly 15 years by rising community concerns over reclamation and - more recently - heritage preservation.

A big question mark still hangs over the value of Container Terminal 10 amid the brisk development of ports on the mainland. Ten years after the opening of Hong Kong International Airport, the site of the old Kai Tak airport remains largely idle, as does a 40-hectare waterfront site in West Kowloon that planners have talked about since 1998.

Despite all the delays, some progress has been made - particularly in the area of railway construction. There may not be anything as exciting as the airport core project, but the completion of several rail lines did help urban development expand into the countryside. They include West Rail, the MTR Tseung Kwan O extension, the KCR's Ma On Shan Rail extension, the Lok Ma Chau spur line and the Shenzhen Western Corridor, which is to open this month.

There are still missing pieces in the great concept of a railway network linking up all major districts. Two extensions - the Kowloon Southern Link and the Northern Link, essential for completing the railway circuit in Kowloon and the New Territories - are yet to be completed. On the Hong Kong side there is not even a timetable for the South Island Line, which would complete the circuit between the Island Line and the West Island Line, due to be finished in 2012.

The planned merger of the two railways - operated by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation and the MTR Corp - may begin a new era for the transport network. The merger could lead to better planning of new rail lines, including the Sha Tin-Central rail link, which planners say will create seamless transitions between stations under the authority of one rail operator. Resulting efficiencies may save HK$600 million a year, helping to reduce fares. This may force competing services - buses, taxis and minibuses - to realign their services on the city's ever-more congested roads.

This leads to another interesting issue that never attracts as much attention as its infrastructure counterpart - upgrading our transport network with an intelligent transport system (ITS). Such systems integrate various tools relating to traffic - car navigation systems, real-time transport information and the management of accidents and other incidents. The result: instant route guidance and information based on real-time road conditions to lead drivers away from congestion.

The technology is well developed in the United States and Europe and is used by many of our neighbours, including Japan and Singapore. Japan developed the system 14 years ago, and 60 per cent of its road users now own a car navigation system. In Singapore, all taxi drivers have been using the global positioning system (GPS) for seven years.

But Hong Kong lags far behind. Although about one-sixth of the city's 612,000 vehicles are equipped with GPS, the system is better suited to the logistics sector than ordinary road users. Apart from ambulances, police cars and fire engines, few government vehicles are equipped with GPS. Yet the accuracy of the system's information depended on having many cars on the road sending data back to traffic control centres, said Jason Wong Shiu-fung, president of Intelligent Transport System Hong Kong.

Ringo Lee Yiu-pui, vice-chairman of the Institute of the Motor Industry, faulted the government for not taking a more active role in embracing the technology. 'On the mainland and in Macau, all government vehicles already have GPS installed, but the Hong Kong government left the responsibility largely in the hands of the private sector,' he said.

Many companies in the information technology and logistics sectors have developed their own electronic road maps and real-time transport information systems. But standards and structures vary greatly; they don't share the same platform and rely on their own fleet to provide real-time road information.

But the commercial sector was not always best-suited to lead a new trend as its decisions were based on finances, said Yung Hoi-ching, associate professor of the Laboratory of Intelligent Transportation Systems Research at the University of Hong Kong. 'To adopt a new technology in a mass transport system, who could do a better job than the government?' he asked. 'Who controls the most resources and has the public's best interests at heart?'

Dr Yung said that in the British county of Surrey, GPS was widely used because local officials paid for the system to be installed in public buses. 'In places where there is early development in ITS, it is always the government that takes the lead,' he said. 'Our city is already loaded with roads. Building more won't help ease congestion and pollution: it is time the government looked for a solution elsewhere.'

There is a reason why Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said last year he was upset by our slow progress in building an 'intelligent' road network. The Transport Department is still monitoring road conditions with closed-circuit TV cameras. When there's an accident, officers view the situation and call the media to issue bulletins. But their judgments can be marred by a blurry TV picture or when a traffic jam is out of view of the camera.

In 2001, the department commissioned the city's first ITS contract to computer giant IBM in a bid to develop a transport information system and a master road map for other software to work on. But the contract ended in a dispute and the government didn't retender the HK$103 million contract until last year to PCCW, for completion early next year.

The government is not alone in pinning its hopes on technology to reduce traffic congestion - so are taxi companies. In light of competition from illicit cargo vans and 'discount' taxi groups, taxi firms have been hoping that technology will give them an edge. Various taxi groups resolved this year to try different technologies in a bid to improve their services.

Over the past year taxis started, then stopped, letting passengers pay with Octopus cards. Some seven-seat hybrid taxis to take wheelchairs are to be introduced next month. Taxis using GPS systems and imported London taxis fuelled by LPG could be hitting the roads later this year.

The government has begun a top-to-bottom review of the taxi industry and its future role, which is just the beginning of a gradual reform of the city's mass transport system. How long it will take for changes to spread to other forms of transport will depend on what the government does once it completes the master road map that will underpin the city's ITS system.

Mr Wong, of Intelligent Transport System, is confident that, 10 years from now, vehicle navigation and real-time traffic information will be everywhere. 'The government has already taken the lead in installing message signs on major routes to indicate the road status ahead,' he said. 'It may adopt overseas examples in the future and pay for a GPS system to be installed in public transport. The government knows that easing traffic jams is an important step in cleaning the air.'

With the upcoming Western Corridor and the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge on the drawing board, the number of vehicles crossing the border is destined to grow. Apart from restricting quotas for cross-border car licences, the government should look ahead and co-operate with the mainland on ITS development. 'Our government should have the vision to take the mainland into its future planning of ITS, so it's not just an inner-city, but an inter-city, system,' Dr Yung said.

Mr Lee, whose institute organises a cross-border driving parade every year and struggles to get permits, said it was important to develop a unified ITS system with the mainland. 'Hong Kong talks about forming closer ties and connection with the mainland but that cannot be achieved by building roads and railways alone. It is time the government looks into the less tangible factors.'