On 11 April 2006, MTRCL signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Hong Kong government, the owner of Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, to merge the operation of the two railway networks in Hong Kong in spite of the strong opposition by the KCRC staff. The minority shareholders of the corporation approved the proposal at an extraordinary general meeting on 9 October 2007, allowing MTRCL to take over the operation of the KCR network and combine the fare system of the two networks on 2 December 2007.