"I would say that with the initial successes that we have had, there is definitely interest in continued development, and expansion in Australia remains very significant," Mr Leong said. Thousands of homes, a shopping centre and hotel were built around Tung Chung Station in Hong Kong as part of MTR's rail plus property model. Credit:MTR "We're always looking for opportunities but what we've found is that once we have got to know a city well, like Melbourne and like Sydney, there are perhaps other opportunities to keep expanding from there so the focus will be on those cities to begin." The Hong Kong metro system is regarded as one of the most efficient rail networks in the world, transporting more than 5 million passengers a day and running on time 99.9 per cent of the time. The company turns billions of dollars in profit and funds the construction and maintenance of rail lines by building and managing thousands of high rise apartments and shopping malls near or above train stations.

MTR's interest is not unrequited. Premier Mike Baird and Transport Minister Andrew Constance have, according to their diaries, met with MTR representatives in Australia and federal Cities Minister Jamie Briggs visited the company's Hong Kong headquarters in recent weeks. MTR's Operation Command Centre includes an "incident box" which counts the time that it takes to resolve any delays on the train lines. The centre tries to solve all incidents in under two minutes. Credit:MTR The rail-plus-property model is a form of "value capture" – a broad term for a finance model that works to capture the windfall gain in land value that property owners experience when public infrastructure is built nearby. "Value capture" can include levies, rates and taxes to the MTR model where a private company builds the railway line and station and is given development rights for surrounding land. The term has come into political vogue in recent months. The new light rail from Parramatta to Sydney Olympic Park via Strathfield and the construction of a new train station and residential towers at Waterloo will both be partially funded through "value capture", with a special levy to be placed on new residential developments. MTR chief executive Lincoln Leong said the company is look to Australia to expand. Credit:MTR

MTR does not have property development rights for the Sydney Metro Northwest, the high speed rail line between Rouse Hill and Chatswood, but it is bidding for new contracts for the extension of the line under Sydney Harbour, through the CBD and to Bankstown. The federal government is also considering how value capture could be used to fund a rail link to the proposed Badgerys Creek airport, including the option of contracting developers to build stations and the communities around them. But MTR's approach in Hong Kong has been criticised by some, including AECOM's Asia Pacific executive director of buildings and places, Guy Perry, who labelled their residential developments "fortresses" that were geared towards profit. The company has only exported the rail plus property model to mainland China, but Mr Leong is quick to say it would be used differently in Sydney and would not mean 60-storey apartment blocks sprouting in the suburbs. "The rail-and-property model need not just be massive buildings above stations or depots. There are many different ways of skinning the cat," Mr Leong said.

"Whether you use the Hong Kong model or an iteration of that, we are really open to see what the city wants, what the development community can bring to the table, and work with that development community. We're not there just to grab everything ourselves." It makes financial sense for MTR to look to expand in Australia. The company's projects in Australia contributed more revenue – about $770 million – than any of their other international ventures in the half year to June 30. Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, said levies were unoriginal and he supported a more radical MTR-like model of "value capture" where public transport was approached through the lens of redevelopment potential. "The old way of doing public transport was transit first, then the land use follows in your plan and then you get finance. The new way should be you get the finance by looking at the land use and then out of that you develop the transit," Professor Newman said. Melanie Kembrey visited Hong Kong courtesy of MTR.