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COMMUNICATIONS
company in 1968 was 156 tramcars and 22 trailers at peak periods. This gave a car in each direction every two minutes on all routes. Through the city area the minimum frequency was a car every 30 seconds in each direction. The number of passengers carried was 158.4 million. Fares are charged at a flat rate for any distance over any route and are 20 cents first class and 10 cents third class, the maximum length of a route being six-and-three-quarters miles. The company also issue monthly and concessionary tickets.
The Peak Tramways Company Limited runs a funicular railway service up the Peak. The present haulage system has been in use since 1925 and cars are drawn along the track by nearly two miles of steel cable. During the year, two million passengers were carried. The tramway climbs Victoria Peak to an altitude of 1,305 feet above sea level and the steepest part of the track has a gradient of one in two. It is reputed to be the steepest funicular railway in the world using a steel wire rope as its sole means of haulage.
Taxis are licensed for specific use on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon or the New Territories, and conditions and fares vary with each area. The Government continued to open the way for new companies to enter the taxi business and, in accordance with this policy, 250 new urban taxi licences (235 for Kowloon and 15 for Hong Kong Island) were put out to public tender in September. On Hong Kong Island fares are $1.50 for the first mile and 20 cents for every fifth of a mile, or 25 cents for every subsequent quarter of a mile. In Kowloon the fare is $1 for the first mile and 20 cents for every subsequent quarter, mile. Taxis licensed for the New Territories may carry passengers to any place in Kowloon, but may only pick up passengers in Kowloon at special taxi stands for destinations in the New Territories. They may not ply for hire within the urban area of Kowloon. At the end of the year, there was a total of 3,894 licensed taxis in the Colony: 2,235 in Kowloon, 1,171 on Hong Kong Island and 488 in New Territories.
Public omnibuses operate transport services excluded from the monopolies of the major bus companies. They include coaches for sight-seeing tours, those provided by hotels for their guests and those used for school-bus services. At the end of the year there were 351 public omnibuses licensed by the Commissioner for Transport. Some public cars operate under similar franchises and