HONG Kong train operator MTR  which will submit on Tuesday its bid to run Melbourne's train system for the next 15 years  ran 99.9 per cent of its trains within two minutes of their scheduled time last year.

MTR (Mass Transit Railway) is 76 per cent owned by the Hong Kong Government and runs one of the world's most modern metro systems.

It also has one of the world's most successful smartcard ticketing systems, the Octopus card.

It is impossible to compare Melbourne's train system, largely laid out in the late 19th century, to Hong Kong's system, started in 1975 with two lines and since expanded to nine.

The 211-kilometre system carries 3.4 million passengers each weekday. Melbourne's 372-kilometre system carries about 350,000 each weekday.