Summary on "Best in Class"

In the article, “Dubbed ‘the best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong’s MTR rail system,” Khaw (as quoted in Lee, 2015) claims that Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is considered the best railway operator in the industry, and it is being used as a benchmark for railway operators from other countries. Lee states that Hong Kong’s government allows private companies to operate public utilities, that allows for MTR to be one of the world’s most profitable rail systems. Lee mentioned that the MTR has more than 100 stations, carrying millions of passengers daily and also stretches over 200km. He also commented that the MTR is very consistent in the frequency of train arrival times. Lee implied that the reason why MTR’s operations are running smoothly is because of spending more than one third of MTR Corporation’s (MTRC) revenue on maintenance, and also it has a large workforce to maintain the railway system. Lee remarked that MTRC has an efficient communication system in place to relay critical information to all its stations when a problem arises. It is good practice for organisations to benchmark their performance against other corporations that are successful in their business model.