COMMUNICATIONS
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excluded from the monopolies of the major bus companies. At the end of the year there were 43 public omnibuses licensed. They are used mainly by tourists on sightseeing tours, by hotel manage- ments who provide transport for their guests, for the carriage of passengers and employees between the airport and hotels, airline offices and ferry termini, and more recently the carriage of school children to and from schools licensed to operate such a service on behalf of their students. Public cars operate under franchise in the same manner and differ from public omnibuses only in that they seat a maximum of nine passengers. At the end of the year there were 120 public cars licensed.
Ferry Services. The Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry Company Ltd operates a fleet of 62 diesel-engined ferries. During the year four cross-harbour services were added bringing to 11 the total number. These new services are the Wan Chai/Hung Hom, North Point/Hung Hom, North Point/Kowloon City and North Point/ Kwun Tong services. A Jubilee Street/Hung Hom service was operated by the company before the war but it was not until September 1963 when a seawall was built that the company re- sumed operations from Hung Hom. The North Point/Hung Hom passenger service commenced on 1st September. The North Point/ Kwun Tong service commenced on 1st November and is tem- porarily operating from the same berth as the North Point/ Kowloon City service on the Hong Kong side. The routes inside the harbour are now between Wilmer Street, Rumsey Street, Jubilee Street, Stewart Road, Tonnochy Road and North Point on Hong Kong Island and Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok, Jordan Road, Hung Hom and Kowloon City and Kwun Tong on Kowloon peninsula. The company also operates a combined vehicle and passenger service across the harbour between Jubilee Street and Jordan Road from 6.20 a.m. to 2 a.m. This service is supplemented by extra sailings for the carriage of vehicles only during rush hours by ferries operating from new berths completed later in the year. In addition, a temporary ferry service for vehicles between Rumsey Street and Jordan Road is maintained. The company has a depot with three slipways and a building berth for the servicing and construction of ferries.
During 1963 121.6 million passengers and 3,015,300 vehicles were carried, an increase of nine million (8.03 per cent) and 546,500