XN000022-1995-02-15 — Page 52

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Reply:

Mr President,

(a)

(b)

The introduction of more bus priority schemes has been widely supported by the community and the Members of this Council in the context of the Administration's proposals for addressing the traffic congestion problem. In this respect, a trial scheme to provide a bus only lane along Tuen Mun Road is scheduled for implementation on 11 March this year. Details of the scheme are now being finalised and will be publicised. As part of this exercise, the Administration will mount a campaign to persuade commuters to use public transport services rather than to drive cars. I am grateful to the Hon Alfred Tso for his suggestion that those who continue to drive, should be encouraged to give lifts to their friends and neighbours so as to make better use of road space. We will follow this up. But, of course, we must ensure that no private car driver solicits paying passengers as this would be illegal.

Sixteen air conditioned KMB bus routes have already been introduced with services from housing estates and major transport interchanges in the Yuen Long/Tuen Mun area to Tsim Sha Tsui as well as to various MTR stations. On the introduction of the bus only lane, KMB will provide 2 additional bus services from Sham Tseng and Siu Lam to the Tsuen Wan MTR Station. Also 11 existing services from Tuen Mun and Yuen Long will be strengthened by the provision of 11 extra buses. In addition, there are 39 resident coach services connecting particular housing developments with the urban area. The Transport Department will continue to encourage the provision of such services.

Our objective must remain to maximize the use of available road space by encouraging more people to use mass carriers, that is franchised buses and residential coaches which will have access to the dedicated bus only lane. At present, green minibuses can only use the Tuen Mun Road between midnight and 6 a.m. There are no plans to relax this restriction or allow red public light buses to use Tuen Mun Road.