Railway transportation is an efficient and environmentally friendly transportation service. Trams were providing mass transportation service for citizens on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island as far back as 1904. Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) also came into operation in 1910, which became a main transportation line between Hong Kong and China. On the other hand, the classical-style Peak trams had started to carry tourists to the Peak for a fantastic view of the Victoria Harbour at an even earlier time in 1888. Following the rapid population growth in the 60’s and the 70’s of the last century and the tremendous development of the industrial and commercial sectors in Hong Kong, road surface transportation became unable to satisfy the demand and so Hong Kong Government developed Mass Transit Railway service.

Mass Transit Railway (MTR) has been expanding since it came into operation in 1979 and it has now become an underground network formed by six main lines, including Kwun Tong Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Island Line, Tseung Kwan O Line, Tung Chung Line and Airport Express. In addition, Penny’s Bay Rail Link (Sunny Bay Station) came into service in September 2005 to cater for the development of the Disney Theme Park. On the other hand, to cater for the development of new towns, the rapid population growth in the northern part of the New Territories and the frequent trade between China and Hong Kong, KCR became electrified in 1982 and it continued to expand and now comprises the Light Rail that came into service for Tuen Mun and Yuen Long residents in 1988; the West Rail that came into service in 2003, connecting Nam Cheong in Kowloon and Yuen Long and Tuen Mun in the northwest New Territories; and the Ma On Shan Rail Link that came into service in 2004, connecting Ma On Shan and Tai Wai and extended the East Rail to East Tsim Sha Tsui. In 2007, the Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau Spur Line came into service to provide relief for the congestion at Lo Wu Control Point. The total length of the existing railway network in Hong Kong is over 200 kilometres, accounting for about 40% of all public transport journey, and even close to 50% in terms of total journey distance travelled by passengers. The number of passenger trips was over 5 million per day.

To develop a safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally friendly transportation system, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region unveiled the “Railway Development Strategy 2000”, which mapped out the railway network expansion blueprint for Hong Kong up to the year 2016. According to this strategic plan, six additional railways will come into service in 2016, including two MTR Island Line Extensions, Sha Tin to Central Link, Kowloon Southern Link and Northern Link, and the Regional Express Line. Moreover, a Port Rail Line specially designed for freight traffic will be studied. In view of the many future development plans mentioned above, there will be vigorous railway development works and the demand for manpower will continue to increase. The introduction of every new railway system will normally bring new technology, in particular electrical and mechanical engineering technology, and computer control and information technology, which in turn will significantly enhance the techniques of local practitioners in related industries.

On the other hand, as Hong Kong developed its railway transportation service tremendously in the recent two decades, it cultivated a number of experts in railway engineering and service. The extremely high quality service provided by various railways of Hong Kong in terms of safety, reliability and operation efficiency is admired by the railway transportation organizations in many countries and regions. As a result, a number of countries and regions have employed the railway consultation or engineering service provided by the railway corporations in Hong Kong. This turns Hong Kong’s railway engineering and service techniques into an export industry gradually.

Railway engineering mainly includes two major domains, namely civil engineering and electrical and mechanical engineering. Since this set of specification of competency standards only cover electrical and mechanical services industry, the specification of competency standards for civil engineering will be compiled separately.

Each railway has a different design to cater for the operational characteristics of various railway lines, including length of route, area covered, number of passengers carried and the surrounding environment, etc. When classified by electricity supply systems, Hong Kong’s electric railway systems can be roughly classified into the following categories:

(i)	500 volt direct current railway system of trams
(ii)	750 volt direct current railway system of Light Rail
(iii)	1,500 volt direct current railway system of MTR
(iv)	25,000 volt alternate current railway system of KCR East Rail, West Rail and Ma On Shan Rail Link

Despite the differences in their electricity supply system, there are many common areas with respect to the electrical and mechanical facilities of the railway systems and there are similarities and differences in the techniques required. Under such a complicated situation, the units of competency of specification of competency standards will be of great use in detailing the competency required for various functions, summarizing similarities and highlighting differences, and building a detailed qualifications framework. Under this qualifications framework, a distinct specification of competency standards will be compiled for the application of practitioners, employers and training institutes to help enhance the standard and quality of techniques.