1995 — Page 89

CUSTOMER SERVICES

Transport Services

New Routes

OPERATIONAL REVIEW

The route network was further expanded during the year. A total of 11 new bus routes has been inaugurated. Three of these new routes serve the demand arising from new developments. Another five

routes are cross-harbour services. In order to attract car commuters to public transport services, and to

take advantage of the Bus Only Lane on Tuen Mun Road, two special morning MTR feeder routes serving Sham Tseng and Sam Shing to Tsuen Wan have been introduced. Furthermore, one recreation route has

been provided to cater for the demand on Sundays and public holidays.

Route Rationalisation

In 1994, following a comprehensive study by a firm of independent consultants of the Company's

network of services in the urban Kowloon area, 13 packages of proposals to rationalise some of the

routes within the network were developed and presented to the relevant District Boards for consultation.

Nine of these packages were implemented during 1995, in some cases, modifications were made to take

account of the views expressed by the District Boards. These rationalisation measures, which resulted in

improved services being provided to the majority of customers of the routes concerned while enabling

the Company to make more economical use of its resources, received strong support from our customers.

Although 22 double-deck buses were re-deployed to serve the new towns, the number of passenger-trips

for the rationalised routes showed a 7 per cent increase against an overall decline of 1.6 per cent for the

urban Kowloon network as a whole.

In the light of these satisfactory results, 9 further rationalisation packages were developed during 1995

and were put forward to the Transport Department and the relevant District Boards. The consequent

redeployment of 23 double-deck buses to serve the new towns is expected to be implemented in 1996

if all proposals are endorsed by the District Boards.

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KUB

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