HONG KONG
MTR has become a familiar name in Britain, with its involvement in various franchise bids, its successful operation of London Overground, and for winning the contest to run Crossrail. In Hong Kong MTR earns as much from property as it does from transport, making it an ideal partner for Transport for London as the capital’s transport owner rediscovers its heritage by embracing property development.
The ten-line rail network runs without subsidy - not only because it carries 5.4 million passengers a day, but also because of the financial support of MTR’s retail and 48 commercial developments at its stations.
To give an idea of their scale, the four residential towers that form the Riverpark development at Che Kung Temple station have almost 1,000 flats. MTR has also moved into mainland China, where the Shenzhen Metro Longhua Line Property Development will feature 1,698 residential units and a shopping centre of about 10,000 square metres (see panel).
In Hong Kong, MTR has three categories of malls above, in or beside its stations, with the flagship ELEMENTS luxury mall at Kowloon, regional malls with some very British names (such as Telford Plaza in Kowloon East and Maritime Square above a station), and neighbourhood malls.
CLOSER TO HOME
Sweden’s capital Stockholm is following the Japanese and Hong Kong model. It has already handed over the metro network to MTR, which at the end of 2016 will also take charge of its commuter rail network. Part of its plans entail taking “co-responsibility for the building and property development in, around and above stations, the servicing or even the creation of communities inextricably linked into the transport network”, as The Times recorded.
The object is to use the revenue from property to reduce the need for government subsidy. The intention is to use an undeveloped station to build homes, shops and cafes above it as the model for subsequent developments.
“Our model is to let in new ideas and new eyes. You need to lose some control to gain innovation,” says Kristoffer Tamsons, chairman of the Stockholm Transport Authority.
