Most Valuable Metro Railway in the World

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The most valuable metro railway in the world is operated by the MTR Corporation in Hong Kong. It had a profit of US$2.2 billion (HK$17 billion) way back in 2017 and was rated as the most valuable metro in the world.

“Hong Kong’s MTR is one of the best designed, best operated, and most successful metro systems in the world,” says Robert Cervero, professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley. Source: CNN

CNN further elaborates on the Hong Kong MTR

Running about 20 hours and 8,000 train trips per day, MTR boasts a staggering 99.9% punctuality rate, according to the corporation.
In the first half of 2014, the system ran for 120 consecutive days without a single delay of over eight minutes, establishing a record for the company (if not the world).
As remarkable, all this getting around comes at a cost of only about $1 per trip, on average.
Each year, HK$5 billion ($645 million) is invested in maintenance, upgrades, and renewals to the system.
“Hong Kong MTR is one of the few metro systems in the world that generates net operational income strictly from its railway business,”
Hong Kong has the world’s highest “fare box recovery rate” — the percentage of income derived from ticket sales weighed against operating expenses — typically returning between 150-180%. “The fare box recovery of U.S. metro systems is around 60% at best and many others are also less than 100%,

More Titbits on Hong Kong MRT

More interesting facts about Hong Kong MRT as revealed by CNN

MTR sells land it owns, manages third-party properties, builds shopping malls, and rents out real estate, to name just a few ways it exploits its holdings.
MTR also provides consultation services to railway networks around the world.
After the last trains depart from stations at about 1 a.m., more than 1,000 workers spring into action to maintain the system.
Infrared monitors on tracks are used to detect cracks too small for the human eye to detect.
The company also owns Hong Kong’s ubiquitous smart payment “touch and go” system, Octopus. The smart card allows passengers to pay fares — not just on the MTR, but on other public transportation systems — by swiping the Octopus against a card reader. So indispensable has the card become that more than 99% of Hong Kongers now own an Octopus card.

Hong Kong rail giant MTR Corporation has posted a profit of HK$4.73 billion in the first half of 2022.

Most Valuable Metro Railway in the World Hong Kong MTR

Most Valuable Hong Kong Metro Railway

MTR is a heavily patronized railway network consisting of 9 heavy rail lines, Airport Express, Light Rail, and the Hong Kong Section of Guangzhou Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL); the existing railway network has a total route length of about 271 kilometers.

the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) has been granted a 50-year franchise to operate the MTR and KCR systems with effect from December 2, 2007.

The East Rail Line was commissioned in 1910. The first passenger train on Kwun Tong Line started operation in late 1979, followed by the subsequent expansion of the network. The heavy rail line network currently has 96 stations and carries an average of about 3.9 million passenger trips per day in 2021.

Airport Express (AEL): The AEL, which came into service in 1998, provides services to the Hong Kong International Airport. The AEL has five stations with a route length of 35.2 km and a maximum speed of 135 km per hour. The AEL carries about 5,900 passenger trips per day

Light Rail: Light Rail is a local transportation network that has a route length of about 36 km with 68 stops. In 2021, it carries an average of about 387,900 passenger trips every day.

XRL, commissioned in September 2018, is a 26-km long underground rail corridor connecting Hong Kong with the national high-speed rail network. XRL carries an average of about 35,600 passenger trips per day

Tramway: Electric trams have been operating on Hong Kong Island since 1904. The tramway operates seven routes on 16 km of the tram track. Its average daily passenger trips were about 131,000 in 2021

Source: gov.hk

Largest Metro Systems in the World

Any person can express their particular preferences for the cleanest or most tranquil public transportation system in the world. In order to be fair, Titlemax has compiled a list of metro systems and arranged them according to the volume of annual travel they handle.