ABSTRACT
The territory's urban fabric has remained tightly knit, with high densities, high buildings, concentrated activities and an unusually strong dependence on public transport for passenger travel. In a theoretical study of Hong Kong's urban area, Cochrane showed that the acceptable density limits to sustainable residential and office land use had already been well exceeded even before the mass transit railway was introduced. Railway investment everywhere is beset by high costs, but in Hong Kong there is the added burden of the government's insistence that rail schemes should be wholly self-financing. Hong Kong is generally regarded as one of the world's most successful societies, and its public transport system is regarded as an equally outstanding achievement. The tramway system on Hong Kong Island was first proposed in 1881, yet 23 years passed before it was opened, and the projected Kowloon tram system, proposed in 1913, was never built at all.
