Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) has introduced 80 new carriages on to the city’s rail network, which will add 815 new train journeys each week.
MTR, which is bidding for the Essex Thameside and Thameslink franchises, has brought the new carriages into service over the past 12 months, taking the total number of new carriages introduced over the last 14 years to 800.
Between 2009 and 2011, MTR introduced a total of 244 new carriages on to the London Overground network, which it co-owns with Laing Rail.
The winning bidder of the Thameslink franchise will need to oversee the introduction of an entire new fleet of trains between 2015 and 2018.
Jeremy Long, chief executive of European business at MTR, said: “MTR recognises that regular passengers are best placed to provide useful feedback on our services, and the addition of these new trains shows how seriously MTR treats these suggestions.
“MTR has built up considerable expertise about introducing new fleets in Hong Kong, the UK and internationally, and we want to use this experience more widely in the UK.”
