ENG-1996 — Page 317

TRANSPORT

KMB made 1032 million passenger trips and covered 285 million kilometres in 1996. Its current franchise extends until August 31, 1997. Fares ranged from $1.10 to $23.60 for non air-conditioned services, and from $2.50 to $32 for air-conditioned services. Passengers aged 65 and over are entitled to concessionary fares on every KMB route, except for the Airbus services.

To relieve peak-hour congestion on the MTR along Nathan Road Corridor, KMB during the year operated a total of 27 air-conditioned bus routes providing services mainly in the morning peak hours on weekdays from the New Territories and North Kowloon to South Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. These services, run jointly with CMB or Citybus, helped keep the MTR passenger flows along Nathan Road at acceptable and safe levels.

Bus services on Hong Kong Island are provided by CMB and Citybus. CMB operates 85 routes, 38 of which cross the harbour to Kowloon and the New Territories. It was granted a new three-year franchise from September 1, 1995.

In April 1996, CMB began its first all-night service on Hong Kong Island, Route N8, plying between Siu Sai Wan and Wan Chai Ferry Pier. At the end of 1996, CMB's registered fleet comprised 825 double-deckers and 28 single-deckers, of which 141 double-deckers and 28 single-deckers were air-conditioned. They made 179.2 million passenger trips and travelled 44.5 million kilometres during the year. Fares ranged from $2.20 to $32. Concessionary fares are offered to passengers aged 65 and over on all CMB routes, except for airport services.

Citybus started its first franchised service, Route 12A, in September 1991. It took over from CMB the operation of 26 routes and 14 routes on Hong Kong Island in September 1993 and September 1995 respectively. The company now operates 58 routes on Hong Kong Island. Of these, 10 are cross-harbour routes jointly operated with KMB. Citybus was granted a 10-year franchise from September 1, 1996.

At the end of the year, Citybus had a registered fleet of 375 double-deckers, 30 single-deckers and two single-deck low-floor buses, which were all air-conditioned. Fares ranged from $2.20 to $32. Concessionary fares were offered to passengers aged 60 and over on Hong Kong Island routes, except night bus and recreation routes; and to passengers aged 65 or over for cross-harbour routes. The company's bus services made 120 million passenger trips and travelled 25 million kilometres during the year.

The fourth franchised bus operator is the New Lantao Bus Co (1973) Ltd (NLB) which provides bus services on Lantau Island. At the end of 1996, NLB operated nine routes with a registered fleet of 69 vehicles. During the year, it made 5.23 million passenger trips and travelled 2.75 million kilometres.

Bus-only Lanes

Existing bus-only lanes are mostly localised, and do not facilitate the movement of buses between districts and/or regions. As a result, buses still suffer significant delays due to traffic congestion in major inter-district traffic corridors.

The Transport Department commissioned a 17-month consultancy study in August 1996 to investigate and design inter-district bus-only lanes for six corridors covering major commuter traffic between homes and work/school places, and to implement one of them as focus scheme in mid-1997. These inter-district bus-only lanes are

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