ENG-1971 — Page 240

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COMMUNICATIONS

From October 1, adult monthly tickets and free travel for members of the police force, the auxiliary police, the Preventive Service, the District Watch Force and postmen were abolished. On October 15, the company withdrew a large proportion of its subsidy for student monthly tickets thus increasing the price of the ticket from $6 to $18. However, as part of its general education policy, the Govern- ment introduced a form of subsidy which means that students only have to pay $9 per ticket.

As a way of reducing overhead costs, the company introduced a number of one-conductor buses to replace two-conductor buses. At present 34 per cent of the fleet is operating under the new system and it is planned to extend this.

Bus services on Hong Kong Island are operated by the China Motor Bus Company Limited which has 198 double-deck and 285 single-deck buses. The total passenger-carrying capacity at the end of the year was 35,304, an increase of 1.29 per cent over 1970. The company has embarked on an extensive two-year programme to increase its carrying capacity by replacing all its single-deck buses with high capacity double-deck vehicles, and at the end of the year almost every bus route on the Island had been at least partially converted to double-deck bus operation.

As part of this expansion plan, the company introduced the first one-conductor double-deck buses in Asia and soon followed this up with one-man, pay-as-you-enter, double-deck buses on busy routes. These buses replaced the three-man operated buses and already 35 per cent of the fleet is operating on the no conductor system. Fares remained unchanged during the year, thus continuing 25 years of stability. The company operates over 29 routes and in 1971 carried 175.1 million passengers and covered 15.3 million miles.

The Hongkong Tramways Limited operates an electric tramway service on Hong Kong Island. The fleet comprises 162 double-deck tramcars and 22 single-deck trailers. The minimum frequency of the service through the city centre is a tramcar approximately every 30 seconds in each direction. In 1971 each vehicle carried an average of 906,360 passengers, the highest annual utilisation of any form of public transport.

Since 1888 the Peak Tramways Company Limited has operated a funicular railway service up the Peak. The present haulage system has been in use since 1925 and cars are drawn along the track by

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