ENG-1946 — Page 140

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Tramways.

The Hong Kong Tramway Company before the war operated just over 19 miles of track. With 112 passenger tramcars, of which 93 were daily in use, the company used to transport about 80 million passengers a year; car mileage in 1941 was about 434 million miles. When the company's officials resumed possession of the undertaking from the Japanese on 1st September, 1945, only 15 of their 112 passenger tramcars were found to be serviceable; overhead equipment had been to a great extent dismantled, and the workshops, stores and maintenance departments had been stripped of machinery, tools and plant. The company was fortunate to find the track and permanent way and all depôt premises, car sheds and offices substantially intact although records and everything movable were lost. As soon as the war was over energetic reconstruction work was started. Most of the main workshop machinery was traced and reinstalled. By the end of 1945 most of the pre-war routes were again in operation though on a restricted scale since only 45 tramcars were serviceable. During 1946 the service was improved and the number of tram- cars in operation rose to 63. The main difficulties were the uncertain arrival of replacement material, the strain on main- tenance facilities and the restrictions from time to time on the supply of electric power. Labour and operating costs showed a considerable increase and the cost of the service supplied to the public stood at the end of the year at twice the pre-war rate.

Omnibus Services.

The motor bus companies faced similar difficulties when the Japanese war ended. The Japanese had confiscated al- most all the buses and stocks of spare parts and few could be traced. Skeleton services were put on as soon as possible through the most populous areas of the city with those remain- ing buses which could be put in order; the Military Adminis- tration lent a number of three-ton Dodge trucks to the bus companies for conversion to makeshift buses and with this assistance the routes were extended and the services made more frequent. By the end of 1946 deliveries of new buses ordered from England some months before had begun and the services were being further improved. Fares had more than doubled in that passengers on almost all routes were required to pay twice the pre-war first class fare for their journey. Other Vehicles.

When the relieving forces came ashore in 1945 they found little serviceable road transport. Of the many vehicles in use in 1941, some had been shipped out of the Colony to Japan and elsewhere and the remainder had been allowed to fall into serious disrepair. A limited number of service vehicles were brought in during the Military Administration and to