TNAG-1060-FCO40-1310-Mass-Transit-Railway-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 160

XCCI(81)12

CONFIDENTIAL

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MTR Feeder Services

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At the present time both bus companies provide a total of 180 buses to serve MTR feeder routes and efforts are being made to deploy more buses on these routes. In addition, a number of other routes terminate at the vicinity of MTR stations and serve as effective MTR feeder routes. There is at the moment not a great deal of scope for such deployment as most of the new buses arriving in Hong Kong have to be put onto routes serving new development areas, especially the New Towns in the New Territories and to relieve overcrowding on some of the existing routes. There is clearly a need to strike a proper balance to meet the conflicting demands on a limited number of buses and the matter is being kept under continuing review by a committee comprising representatives from the Transport Department, the MTRC and KM8.

Redeployment

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There are practical problems involved in redeploying buses from routes paralleling the MTR because all of these routes are still overcrowded, especially during the peak hours and on several of these routes overcrowding extends up to 7 hours of the day. While in the case of some of these routes there has been a drop in patronage since the opening of the MIS, in most cases this only means a reduction in the level and duration of overcrowding, but not to a sufficient extent to justify the redeployment of many buses away from these routes.

The situation has been kept under review for some time now and, at a recent meeting between the Transport Department, KMB and the MTRC, it was agreed that ten urban Kowloon routes could be reduced by one bus each (Nos. 2C, 2D, 3, 5A, 6D, 7A, 7B, 11C, 13B, 15B) and two routes by two buses (Nos. 4A and 7). This agreement is being implemented.

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In the meantime, other routes are being reviewed to see if there are further opportunities for redevelopment, although it has to be accepted that such opportunities are necessarily limited.

Data of Implementing Fare Charges

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The Corporation hopes to introduce store value tickets at the begining of April and the revised fares towards the end of April. The actual timing will be determined by the MTRC's Board of Directors, depending on the efficient working of the stored value machinery. Publicity will be arranged by the Corporation.

CONFIDENTIAL

機密