年盈利达20亿美元，香港地铁如何运营

　　You can find one of Hong Kong’s most profitable businesses about 30 meters below the earth’s surface.

　　你会发现，香港最赚钱的竟是地下30米的地铁。

　　The city’s subway is the face of the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR) -- a publicly traded company that pulled in $5.2 billion in revenue last year。

　　香港地铁是上市企业香港地铁公司(MTR)的主营业务，去年营收达到52亿美元。

　　With a $2 billion annual profit, the Hong Kong’s subway is an anomaly among major rail networks. New York’s subway, for example, suffers from chronic funding gaps and will spend nearly $2.5 billion in 2015 to service its debt。

　　20亿美元的年盈利率使香港地铁在国际众多大型轨道交通中首屈一指。而纽约地铁面临长期资金缺口，还要在2015年偿还25亿美元的债务。

　　How does Hong Kong’s train and bus network manage to clear its mind-boggling margins?

　　香港轨道交通网如何运营，才能有如此惊人的盈利呢？

　　First off, this is one impressive subway system. Even with more than 5 million daily commuters, MTR trains boast a 99.9% on-time arrival rate. Fares are notoriously cheap ($.50 to $3)， but cover roughly 175% of the system’s operating costs。

　　首先，地铁系统效率惊人。即使每天的客流量有500万人次，港铁列车的正点率达到了99.9%，并且票价非常便宜，只有0.5美元到3美元之间，但票务收入已经达到了运营成本的175%。

　　But the company’s real profits are derived from a lesser-known side of the business: property development. Some 50 major properties across Hong Kong are owned, developed or managed by MTR, including two of the city’s tallest skyscrapers。

　　其次就是，港铁还有一项鲜为人知的业务，也是真正带来收入的业务，那就是房地产开发。港铁在香港拥有、开发和管理了香港50个大型地产项目，包括香港两座最高的摩天大楼。

　　"Sometimes critics say it’s a property development firm doing a side business of rail," said Tim Hau, a professor at University of Hong Kong’s School of Economics and Finance。

　　“有时评论认为，港铁是一家房地产开发公司，地铁业务只是副业，”香港大学[微博]金融学院教授Tim Hua说道。

　　Here’s how it works: MTR enjoys a special relationship with the Hong Kong government, which is also its majority shareholder. The government provides land -- at no cost -- for use by the train operator, and MTR is then allowed to develop the areas above and around its stations。

　　其运营方式是：港铁同香港政府之间有着特殊的关系，作为港铁的最大股东，港府免费提供土地让港铁经营，并允许其开发地铁站上面和周围的区域。

　　MTR often builds shopping malls right on top of stations -- it owns 13. Last year, rents at the malls went up by an average of 14%. Below ground, each subway stop is jam-packed with retail outlets, which all pay rent to MTR or have a profit-sharing agreement in place。

　　钢铁通常在地铁站上面建立大型商场，目前拥有13家大型商场。去年这些商场的租金平均上涨了14%。而在地下，每个停靠站都布满了零售店，这些零售店都向港铁缴纳租金或分成利润。

　　You can find every kind of retail in the stations -- even Michelin-starred dim sum restaurants。

　　各式各样的零售网点遍布车站，甚至还有米其林星级点心餐厅。

　　Wong Sau Lan has been managing one such restaurant, called Tim Ho Wan, for the past two years. She said the restaurant’s MTR outlet, located in a subway station that serves the central business district, is twice as popular as its flagship restaurant。

　　Wong Sau Lan两年来经营着一家叫Tim Ho Wan 的餐厅，坐落于地铁出口，由于该地铁站服务于中央商务区，餐厅的顾客是旗舰店的两倍。

　　For the 14 hours that Tim Ho Wan is open each day, people will, on average, wait 40 minutes for the MTR dining experience。

　　Tim Ho Wan每天营业14个小时，顾客平均要等上40分钟才能享受到这家地铁餐厅的服务。

　　MTR is now exporting its model abroad. It’s already been commissioned to build and run lines in China, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia, and more projects are in the works。

　　港铁的经营模式正在向外推广，以被委托承接中国、英国、瑞典和澳大利亚等国地铁的建设运营项目，还有更多项目正在进行中。

　　"They’ll go wherever there’s a profit," said Hau. "There aren’t that many viable competitors in the world."

　　“哪里有利可图，港铁就会去哪里，”Hua说道：“因为在全球范围内，能与他们竞争的对手不是很多。”