TRANSPORT
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South Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. These services helped keep the MTR passenger flows along Nathan Road at acceptable and safe levels.
Bus services on Hong Kong Island were provided by CMB and Citybus. During the year, CMB operated 82 routes on Hong Kong Island, 31 cross-harbour routes jointly with KMB and two cross-harbour routes of its own. It was granted a three-year franchise from September 1, 1995.
At the end of 1997, CMB's registered fleet comprised 794 double-deckers and 29 single-deckers, of which 166 double-deckers and 29 single-deckers were air- conditioned. They made 176.4 million passenger trips and travelled 46.3 million kilometres during the year. Fares ranged from $2.40 to $34.20. Concessionary fares are offered to passengers aged 65 and over on all CMB routes, except for airport services.
Citybus operates two bus networks under two franchises. The first franchise, which lasts until June 30, 2006, comprises 67 bus routes on Hong Kong Island. It also runs 10 cross-harbour routes jointly with KMB and two cross-harbour routes of its own. Citybus was granted a second franchise effective from June 1, 1997, to operate a network of 13 franchised routes for North Lantau and the Chek Lap Kok airport. At the end of 1997, five routes were introduced and the other bus routes will be introduced by phases.
At the end of the year, Citybus had a registered fleet of 590, 561 of which were air- conditioned. Of these, six were 'super' low-floor single-deck buses with provision for wheelchair passengers.
Fares ranged from $2.30 to $34.20. Concessionary fares were offered to passengers aged 60 and over on Hong Kong Island routes, except night bus and recreation routes; and to passengers aged 65 or over for cross-harbour and North Lantau routes. The company's bus services made 148 million passenger trips and travelled 37 million kilometres during the year.
The fourth franchised bus operator is the New Lantao Bus Co (1973) Ltd (NLB) which provides bus services on Lantau Island. It runs 13 routes with a registered fleet of 80 vehicles. During the year, NLB made 5.92 million passenger trips and travelled 3.64 million kilometres.
The Long Win Bus Co Ltd is the fifth and newest franchised bus company in Hong Kong. In October 1996, it was granted a franchise effective from June 1, 1997, to operate a network of 12 bus routes for North Lantau and the new airport at Chek Lap Kok. The first route, E31 which plies between Tung Chung Town Centre and Tsuen Wan, commenced operation on June 1, 1997. Other bus routes will be introduced in phases to cater for the passenger demand for Tung Chung and the new airport at Chek Lap Kok.
Bus-only Lanes
Existing bus-only lanes are mostly localised and do not facilitate the movement of buses between districts and/or regions. As a result, buses still suffer significant delays due to traffic congestion in major inter-district traffic corridors.
The Transport Department commissioned a consultancy study in August 1996 to investigate and design inter-district bus-only lanes for six corridors covering major commuter traffic between homes and work/school places. The bus-only lanes between