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This dissertation, "An Appraisal of Community Engagement in Planning the Express Rail Link" by Pik-kwan, Hui,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Community engagement (CE) is an emerging concept with various definitions and acclaimed benefits. It became vital in the transport planning process because conventional approaches to transport planning no longer satisfy a diverse public and is required to improve the "quality of planning outcomes" (Booth and Richardson 2001, p. 148). Since Hong Kong will continue making railway the backbone for passenger transport, and very little (if any) community engagement has been explored for the city's railway projects, this research aimed to appraise the role, adequacy, and effectiveness of CE in planning Hong Kong's section of the high-speed Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link from years 2000 to 2010. Four objectives are pursued, which are to: (1) identify what community engagement (CE) means to the XRL project stakeholders, including their perceptions of CE strengths, weaknesses, and challenges during the XRL's planning process of Hong Kong's section; (2) identify major factors that shape the XRL project stakeholder understanding and perception of CE; (3) identify and evaluate the implications and the cause and effect that result from stakeholders' understanding and perception of CE in planning Hong Kong's XRL section; and (4) identify scopes to improve the CE process for the city's future transport infrastructure projects. The study first conducted a literature review. It then traced the development of CE in Hong Kong, particularly in the t