Hong Kong MTR consortium extends right to operate Metro Trains Melbourne for another 10 years
Three times larger than MTR’s home network in Hong Kong, Metro Trains Melbourne is the company’s most profitable overseas rail project
A consortium led by Hong Kong’s rail service provider, MTR Corp, has extended its right to operate and maintain the metro system in Melbourne, Australia for up to 10 years from November.
The semi-privatised corporation said on Tuesday that the 60 per cent-owned subsidiary, Metro Trains Melbourne, which has run the service since 2009, would be allowed to continue for the next seven years with an option to extend for a further three.
With 869km of track in the Australian city, more than three times the amount that is in Hong Kong, Metro Trains is the most profitable rail project outside the MTR’s home market in the first half of this year.
MTR chief executive Lincoln Leong Kwok-kuen said the extension of operating rights underlined the improvement of metro services in Melbourne in the past eight years. Partners in Metro Trains Melbourne include engineer contractor, John Holland Group, and rail product provider, UGL Rail.
About a decade ago, MTR began expanding into Europe, mainland China and Australia, while new rail projects in Hong Kong struggled with cost overruns and delays in completion.
The Melbourne metro service is composed of 15 lines and 218 stations, but while the scale of the operation is larger than in Hong Kong, the Asian city is a lot busier with an average of 4.7 million passenger trips on a weekday to Melbourne’s 840,000.