23.
On 16th February, 1975, i.e. the sixth day in the First Moon of the lunar calender, which was the peak of railway travel during the Chinese New Year period, 77,914 passengers were conveyed to all stations.
24. A Tolo Harbour/Rail Tour was introduced on 2nd January, 1975. The Tour, which was a joint venture with the Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Co. Ltd. operates daily except Sundays and public holidays and was the first example of this type of co-operation. It was intended to appeal to both local residents and tourists.
25. Starting from November 4th, 1974, a seat reservation system was intro- duced for first class passengers to enable them to reserve their seats one day in advance. The period was extended to seven days on February 25th, 1975. There is no extra charge.
26. Fares and Rates Increasing operating costs, against an inability to expand capacity, necessitated an increase in fares. With effect from 4th November, 1974 passenger fares were increased the first time since 1947, by an average of 35%. Season (three monthly) tickets were abolished, Con- currently, the second and third class were amalgamated to form an Ordinary Class.
27. The fares increase was based on a tapered scale so that passengers travelling a shorter distance had a greater rate of increase than those travelling further. It was intended to encourage people to take longer journeys by rail.
28. The discount on monthly tickets was reduced as compared with previous years by being based on 40 instead of 30 journeys per month, thus causing an average increase of 33.33% compared with the previous fare.
29. The class indication on the outside of coaches was changed so that ordinary class coaches now have no indication of class. The only external class indication is for first class coaches. The Chinese characters of class definition were eliminated and, in addition to the roman numeral "one", a yellow band immediately under the roof line was introduced on all first class coaches, in line with international practice.
30. From 2nd July to 30th August, 1974, (except Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays) special half-fare student tickets were issued for train journeys between Kowloon Terminal and Mong Kok to new Territories Stations. Altogether 13,006 such tickets were sold compared with 9,260 in the previous year. The increase was attributed to the exceptionally fine weather.
31.
Freight Traffic Freight traffic dropped slightly during the early part of the year due to the economic recession but the upward trend resumed later. An analysis of freight traffic is shown on Appendix VIII. There was an increase in freight revenue arising largely from an increase in mail charges. Comparative figures are as follows :-
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