Rail has played a vital role of making much more of our congested urban space sufficiently accessible to allow commercial development. Without rail, Hong Kong arguably would not have so successfully made the transition from light manufacturing to a service economy. If congestion-prone roads were the sole means of transport and our service economy confined to Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, price pressures would have made Hong Kong highly uncompetitive as a service economy.

If we are to progress and expand our service economy, a greater portion of the urban area must be readily accessible and free of the type of road congestion that characterises urban Hong Kong today.