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Wednesday, July 4, 1973
Replying to another question by Mr. Cheong-Leen, the Financial
Secretary said the two franchised bus companies and the public light
buses between them carried well over three million passengers a day and
managed to keep an extremely mobile population on the move.
But the government was concerned, he said, with the quality of
existing services.
On many routes waiting times were unacceptably long, too many
buses broke down on the roads and so contributed to congestion and a
great number of buses, he said, were "tatty" and prone to overcrowding,
The government was also concerned with the proper role of public
light buses in Hong Kong's evolving transport system "for their present
role is not one which ought to be maintained indefinitely.
"
In far too many instances, he said, public light buses were
performing functions which, in terms of road-use, could be performed more
efficiently by franchised buses without any loss of convenience to the
passenger.
He was referring, in particular to the carriage of large numbers
of passengers non-stop over long routes,
"The problem is to take this trade away from public light buses
and get them to provide services in areas where the enfranchised buses
do not operate and other special services where their flexibility of
operation provides an advantage."
Mr. Haddon-Cave said these were difficult problems but not
insurmountable.
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