Rapid transit in Hong Kong began in 1979 with part of the Modified Initial System of the MTR entered service. The section, then ran only between Shek Kip Mei and Kwun Tong stations, was subsequently extended and new lines were added by the operator, the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (later renamed MTR Corporation Limited, commonly branded as MTR Corporation).
In 1983, the British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (now East Rail Line of the MTR) started to be electrified. Initially resembling the common design of regional railways except its high frequency, interior configuration of the EMU train cars were converted to the common design of metro or rapid transit systems, while conventional passenger trains and freight trains still run on this line. The West Rail and the Ma On Shan Rail were added to the KCR network in 2003 and 2004. All lines were leased by its former owner and operator Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) to the MTR Corporation for a 50-year period from December 2007 onwards.
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Famous quotes containing the words rapid and/or transit:
“Missionaries, whether of philosophy or religion, rarely make rapid way, unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions of the multitude of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a stalking-horse for the promotion of the practical aims of the still larger multitude, who do not profess to think much, but are quite certain they want a great deal.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular, is easy ... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)