TNAG-1060-FCO40-1310-Mass-Transit-Railway-in-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 7

The phasing in of the new mode and the expansion of the capacity of the existing modes is considered in paragraphs 21-24 below. By 1996, it is envisaged that there would be the following transport mix:

1.

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(a) additional roads and traffic management schemes

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including area traffic control, bus-only lanes and tram segregation;

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(b)te to local, express and feeder buses with about be bati1,5 million boardings a day;

(c)

trams between Kennedy Town and Shau Kei Wan with about 0.6 million boardings a day;

(d)

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(e)

PLBs with rather fewer boardings in the Corridor than now, i.e. 0.2 million boardings a day; and

an MTR Island Line from Western Market to Chai Wan with the balance of about 1.2 million boardings a day, although this would not represent its full capacity.

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Each of the public passenger transport modes listed above

has its own peculiar strengths and weaknesses. Buses are a flexible form of transport: a bus fleet can quite easily be expanded and, within any fleet, buses can be moved from route to route and new routes opened. But the scope for buses is necessarily limited by their need for kerb-side ed space for stopping picking up and putting.down passengers. Trams help

to alleviate the shortage of kerb-side space by providing additional scope for passengers to board and leave an at-grade public transport system. Trams, moreover, are accessible, frequent and ideal for short-haul.......... movement. However, as with buses, there are limits to the number of trams which can be effectively accommodated on the road system. PLBS are frequent and accessible to passengers but, compared with buses and trams; are extravagant in their use of road space. Finally, the MTR \provides an excellent service for medium- and long-distance passengers and its introduction into Hong Kong owed much to the fact that it operates off the roads. But it is inflexible in terms of its ability to respond to changing patterns of passenger demand and is not generally appropriate to the needs of people wishing to travel short distances. not a

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The total supply of public passenger transport indicated in paragraph 18 above maches the 3.5 million boardings forecast for 1996, But the forecast for 1996 could, in the event, be exceeded. Moreover there will be further growth in demand after 1996. Accordingly, some