TRANSPORT
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The year saw major modernisation work on the funicular, and the line was closed for six weeks in the summer. The modernised line was re-opened in early August with a new haulage system, semi-automatic operation and two new twin-set tramcars built in Switzerland. The new equipment offers more capacity and a faster ride, resulting in increased ridership from an average of 7 156 passengers a day before modernisation to 10 800 daily since re-opening.
Road Passenger Transport
Despite the growth of rail services, road passenger transport still accounted for two- thirds of all public transport journeys. Of the journeys made by road, over half were on franchised buses, with the remainder being handled variously by non-franchised buses, green minibuses, public light buses and taxis.
Franchised Buses
The standard and capacity of franchised bus services continued to improve through effective planning and co-ordination. There are three franchised bus companies which together carried 3.5 million passenger boardings a day on a network of 340 regular routes.
The largest bus operator is the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB), which ran 227 bus routes in Kowloon and the New Territories in addition to 21 cross-harbour routes operated jointly with the China Motor Bus Company (CMB) and one cross-harbour route - of its own. KMB also operates 'Airbus' services to and from the airport, comprising two
routes to Hong Kong Island and one within Kowloon.
The KMB fleet at the end of the year comprised 2 849 registered vehicles, including 2 729 double-deck buses, 31 single-deckers, 26 full-size coaches and 63 small coaches. As well as further expanding its fleet of air-conditioned small coaches the company continued to experiment with an air-conditioned double-deck bus, and during the year an order was placed for 20 air-conditioned double-deckers. Expansion of the network continued, much of this being in the new towns of the New Territories. During the year three new express services, six intra-new-town services and nine routes to Kowloon were introduced. In 1989 the company carried 975 million passengers and operated 201 million vehicle-kilometres, compared with 1081 million passengers and 215 million vehicle-kilometres the previous year. The company's franchise extends until August 31, 1997. KMB's fare increase of 19 per cent was introduced in January 1989.
Bus services on Hong Kong Island are provided by the China Motor Bus Company, which operates 84 island routes and, jointly with KMB, 21 cross-harbour routes. At the end of 1989 CMB's fleet comprised 1 004 double-deckers and two single-deckers. These vehicles carried 299 million passengers and travelled 50 million vehicle-kilometres during the year compared with 317 million and 53 million respectively in 1988. The company continued to expand its fleet of three-axle double-deckers during the year, 44 were added and 42 more were under construction or on order. In January 1989, the company's franchise was extended until August 31, 1993. The fares were increased by an average 20 per cent in July 1989.
The New Lantao Bus Company (NLB) operates seven regular and two recreational routes on Lantau Island. NLB's fleet comprised 56 buses at the end of the year, of which 13 were double-deckers. During the year the company carried 8 200 passengers on an average weekday, but on Sundays and public holidays recreational travel raised average ridership to 20 000. During the year the company called for tenders to construct a new depot at Mui Wo and it hopes to complete this in 1990.