page_title: Kowloon–Canton Railway
section_title: 1982–2004: An expanding network
hierarchical_section_title: Kowloon–Canton Railway / History / 1982–2004: An expanding network
caption_attribution_description: 中文（繁體）‎: 九廣鐵路公司於2007年12月2日前營運之鐵路網絡
context_page_description: The Kowloon–Canton Railway was a railway network in Hong Kong. It is owned, and was operated by the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation until 2007. It provided rapid transit services, a light rail system and feeder bus routes within Hong Kong, and intercity passenger and freight train services to Mainland China.
  While still owned by its previous operator, the KCRC has been operated by the MTR Corporation under a 50-year, extendible, service concession since 2 December 2007. The two companies have since merged their lines into one unified MTR system. Immediately after the merger, steps were taken to integrate the network into the same fare system as the MTR, and gates between the two networks were removed in several stages in 2008. Although the MTR Corporation is a listed company, the Hong Kong Government is the controlling shareholder.
  In 2006, the local KCR passenger train network recorded an annual ridership of 544 million.
context_section_description: The British Section of the original Kowloon–Canton Railway was originally operated by a department within the Hong Kong Government. Following the government's plan to corporatise the operation of the railway, the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) was established in December 1982, with the government remaining as the sole shareholder.
  With the development and urbanisation of the New Territories, the British Section became an important corridor to connect the new towns in eastern New Territories with urban Kowloon. Electrification and conversion to a dual-track system was completed in 1984. Since then, the suburban rail became much more metro-like. Frequent service was provided, and in the 1990s trains were refurbished to provide fewer seats and more standing places.
  In 1984, the KCRC accepted the government's invitation to build and operate a light rail system in northwestern New Territories. The Light Rail Transit (known later as the KCR Light Rail, and now simply the Light Rail) was opened in 1988.
  The KCRC won a bid in 1996 to build a "Western Corridor Railway", later branded as the KCR West Rail and opened in 2003. The British Section of the original Kowloon–Canton Railway was renamed KCR East Rail, and the LRT became KCR Light Rail. The names "Kowloon–Canton Railway" or "KCR" has become to refer to the network operated by the KCRC. The KCR Ma On Shan Rail was opened in 2004 as a branch line to the KCR East Rail.
  The KCRC also made proposals to plan, build, and operate the Kowloon Southern Link, an extension of the West Rail to connect with the East Rail; the KCRC received permission for the project from the government on 24 September 2002. Disputes on the funding and location of the eventually-cancelled Canton Road station in Tsim Sha Tsui, which was in the proposed alignment, postponed the construction by a year to 2005. Construction started on 7 November 2005. The new link started operation on 16 August 2009.
caption: Map of the KCR network before the railway merger (grey lines belong to the MTR network)
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