With an average weekday patronage of about 5.6 million passengers, MTR is regarded as one of the world's leading railway operators for safety, reliability, customer service and cost efficiency.
The MTR Corporation was established in 1975 as the Mass Transit Railway Corporation with a mission to construct and operate, under prudent commercial principles, an urban metro system to help meet Hong Kong's public transport requirements. The sole shareholder was the Hong Kong Government.

The Company was re-established as the MTR Corporation Limited in June 2000 after the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government sold 23% of its issued share capital to private investors in an Initial Public Offering. MTR Corporation shares were listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on 5 October 2000.

The Corporation marked another major milestone on 2 December 2007 when the operations of the other Government-owned rail operator, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, were merged into the MTR, heralding a new era in Hong Kong railway development.

Other than bringing more efficient and competitively-priced services to local rail passengers, the merger brought new growth opportunities to the MTR Corporation's businesses in and outside of Hong Kong.

The merged rail network comprises ten railway lines serving Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. In addition, a Light Rail network serves the local communities of Tuen Mun and Yuen Long in the New Territories while a fleet of buses provide convenient feeder services.

The Corporation also operates the Airport Express, a dedicated high-speed link providing the fastest connections to Hong Kong International Airport and the city's major exhibition and conference centre, AsiaWorld-Expo.
From Hong Kong, passengers can travel with ease to Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai in the Mainland China using the MTR's intercity railway services.

Today, MTR Corporation is involved in a wide range of business activities in addition to its railway operations. These include the development of residential and commercial projects, property leasing and management, advertising, telecommunication services and international consultancy services.

From its starting base in Hong Kong, the Corporation has expanded into the Mainland China and taken on a range of railway-related projects and operations internationally. In the Mainland China, the Corporation now operates Beijing Metro Line 4, Line 14 and Line 16, Shenzhen Metro Longhua Line (Line 4) and Hangzhou Metro Line 1. Internationally, the Corporation operates and manages TfL Rail (will be renamed as "Elizabeth Line" in 2018) service and jointly operates and manages the South-Western rail franchise in the United Kingdom. The Corporation operates and manages Melbourne Metro in Australia, Stockholm Metro, the Stockholm Pendeltåg commuter rail service and MTR Express, an intercity railway between Stockholm and Gothenburg in Sweden. In September 2014 the Northwest Rapid Transit Consortium, of which the Corporation is a shareholder, was awarded the Operations, Trains and Systems Public-Private Partnership contract for the Sydney Metro Northwest project in Australia. On top of that, the scope of the Corporation's consultancy business also covers cities across Asia, Australia and the Middle East.