COMMENTS OF THE MAJOR BIBLIC TRANSPORT OPERATORS ON THE REVIEW FINDINGS
The Kowloon Motor Bus Co. (1933) Ltd.
China Motor Bus Co. Ltd.
Kowloon Canton Railway
Corporation
Mass Transit Railway
Corporation
ANNEX D
The Hong Kong & Yaumati
Ferry Co. Ltd.
Star Ferry Co. Ltd. & Hong Kong Tramways Ltd.
on the Review's recommendation that no radical changes should be made to the current
institutional structure
of providing and
regulating public transport
agreed strongly that public transport should not be "nationalised"
on the guidelines recommended by the
Review for the planning
of new bus routes
criticised the guidelines as being too stringent and limiting choice; contended that inter- modal competition was beneficial to passengers
criticised the guidelines as biased towards rail protection and limiting passengers' choice; criticised the guidelines for discriminating
between existing routes and new routes; contended that express buses were beneficial to passengers both in the short term and long term, even if they duplicated rail services
agreed that no central authority should be set up and that no radical changes to the current institutical structure were needed
agreed strongly that no central authority should be set up; advocated a gradual move towards deregulation and consideration of free competition among nodes
BL
supported the guidelines for encouraging offe street modes.
supported the guidelines as an improvement over the existing situation; wanted the guidelines to apply to existing routes as well as new routes
criticised the guidelines as biased towards rail, unhelpful towards ferries, and limiting passengers' choice
agreed that no central authority should be set up;
also agreed that some co-ordination was necessary, provided that competition continued to be the main regulatory force
criticised the guide- lines as biased towards rail and against ferries
on the Review's recommendation that the rail corporations should be encouraged to enter into financial arrange- ments with bus operators to provide feeders, and
to provide their own feeders where the bus operators did not wish to do so
suggested the rail corporations should subsidise unprofitable feeders
would welcome subsidy
from the rail corporationa to operate feeders
wanted even greater flexibility in providing the corporations' own feeders
4.
on the Review' a recommendation that government should encourage integration
of fares among operators and review of fares by operators
advised that KMB was already studying fare integration with the rail corporations;
queried the meaning of review of fare structure
would object strongly to fare co-ordination by
government fringing
on KCK', có independence contended th were not hir fare differe been over-el the Review
rcial
ail fares that had
isized in
would object strongly to fare co-ordination by government;
contended that rail fares were not high and that fare differentials had been over-emphasized in the Review;
contended that operators were well capable of co- ordinating fares without government intervention, and advised that the MIRC & KB were jointly studying this
cautioned that fare co-ordination was dangerous as it would erode the competitive edge from Hong Kong's transport system