TNAG-1512-FCO40-2070-Kowloon-Canton-highway-and-Kowloon-Canton-Railway-Corporatio-1986 — Page 118

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The Transport aspects

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l'aze 4

The intention from the beginning has been that the LRT operator would be responsible for providing local bus services in the region served by the LRT. The KCRC has accepted this condition, although it has not yet decided from what date it would start providing the services. The KCRC has also yet to decide whether it will OWN and. operate its own buses, or subcontract the services. The KCRC is actively considering this issue and will soon decide its approach.

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From the time of the original Tuen Mun New Town

viable.

Transport Study of 1977-78 it has. been understood that competition from other modes would to

some extent need to be restricted if the light railway was to stand a fair chance of being

The modes affected includes local buses, interurban buses, non-franchised PLB's and Maxicabs. The central element is the creation of a "Transit Service Area" (TSA) covering the administrative district of Tuen Mun and that part of the Yuen Long District to the west of a north-south line drawn through the eastern light rail terminus in Yuen Long

Within town.

the Area

of control assume certain local bus routes, most of which the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB) has agreed to hand over. There are only two other low-volume local bus routes wholly within the proposed TSA which have not yet been considered in discussion: it will be up

to KCRC

KCRC and KMB to put

forward recommendations

the eventual responsibility for these two routes. Any changes to the route development programme proposed as a result will be the subject of consultation with the

Boards.

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this

KCRC

would

S

appropriate

on

District

External buses connecting termini within the TSA and those outside it (mainly in Tsuen Wan and Kowloon) would be

unaffected by the

existing largely

LRT scheme, and would continue to be developed in response to the region's growth. However, they will not be permitted to carry purely

purely local traffic within the TSA : that

passengers will

be allowed to alight from outbound buses before leaving the TSA, nor to board within the TSA on inbound buses.

revenue

of the

LRT.

Such

to

is,

not

to

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PLBS account for a significant proportion of local trips along the

the Castle Peak Road between Tuen Mun and Yuen Long. Additional stopping restrictions could be justified on traffic management grounds, and this would be beneficial to the be restrictions would have introduced gradually

minimise the possibility of strong reaction from the trade, and should preferably be accompanied by measures which would help the PLB trade to enhance its role In addition to between the region and the Metropolitan Area. modifying the role of non-franchised PLBS, it is proposed to introduce a limited number of additional Maxicab routes, which would complement rather than compete with the LRT system.

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