XN000022-1997-01-29 — Page 37

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Transport Department had made arrangements with public transport operators for special services. KMB, KCRC and LRT deployed additional buses and extended the hours of operation to meet demand. Tsuen Wan bound passengers would take KMB buses from the eastern end of the pedestrianized area on Castle Peak Road, and Tuen Mun and Yuen Long bound passengers would take KCRC feeder buses or LRT from the western end at Sham Shing.

By 11 pm on New Year's Eve, it was estimated that the number of spectators exceeded the 200,000 mark and contingency plans were activated -

(a)

KMB, which already had 80 buses standing by, eventually deployed 100 more buses to the scene and extended the services until the queue was cleared;

(b)

KCRC extended the departure time of buses to operate between Tuen Mun, Sam Shing and Yuen Long until all passengers were cleared;

(c)

LRT also extended the services of 6 routes and the last train left Tuen Mun at 3.30 am.

In the event, some 78,000 people took public transport (25,000 on KMB buses, 12,000 on KCRC buses and 41,000 on LRT) and 20,000 went by private cars, taxis and minibuses.

Due to the size of the crowd and in the interests of safety, a segregation crowd management programme was implemented by the Police during the dispersal phase of the event. This programme allowed for the dispersal of large sections of the crowd in phases, interspersed with security gaps to ensure a large section in between to ensure an orderly departure. The tactic proved effective in ensuring pedestrian safety.

The situation was more difficult along the section of Castle Peak Road near Gold Coast Phase I. As a large number of people were there, they jammed up the narrow Castle Peak Road thus for some 30 minutes buses approaching the pick up point were unable to turn around quickly and to pick up passengers.

The option of providing a ferry service was carefully considered but had to be discarded because of practical problems. The Gold Coast Pier was small and could only cope with vessels no larger than 200 seats, i.e. not much more than a large double decker bus, but the boarding time was much longer. The main ferry pier at Butterfly Bay was right next to the Light Rail Terminal, and the space in between was too restricted to accommodate the marshalling of both ferry passengers and Light Rail passengers in large numbers.