ENG-1998 — Page 304

TRANSPORT

240

concessionary fares for children aged 12 or below and passengers aged 65 or above on all routes.

Non-franchised Buses

Non-franchised bus services serve groups of residents, factory employees, tourists and students on a group-hire basis. At the end of 1998, the licensed fleet of non-franchised buses amounted to 6 305 vehicles.

One group of the non-franchised bus service, the residents' bus services, operate in accordance with the approved routing, timetable and stopping places under passenger service licences issued by the Transport Department. They are introduced mainly to and from housing estates, primarily during peak hours, to supplement franchised bus services. At the end of 1998, there were 229 residents' bus services, of which 23 served Hong Kong Island, three served Kowloon and 203 served the New Territories. Together they carried an average of 107 748 passenger trips every day in 1998. During the year, 17 new services were introduced.

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 considerable delays due to traffic congestion in major traffic corridors.

A consultancy study was commissioned in August 1996 to study the extent to which bus-only lanes would help shorten travelling time and improve the bus services' reliability. Bus-only lanes between Aberdeen and the Wan Chai corridor were implemented in stages from August 1997 to March 1998. Other inter-district bus-only lanes under study are at the public consultation stage.

Minibuses

Hong Kong's minibuses are licensed to carry a maximum of 16 seated passengers. At the end of 1998, there were 6 501 licensed minibuses. Of these, 4 343 were public light buses (PLB), and 2 158 were private light buses. Private light buses are authorised to carry only group passengers and may not collect separate fares.

There are two types of PLBs: 'green' and 'red' minibuses, whose roofs are coloured accordingly. Their operations are regulated by a passenger service licence.

Green minibuses provide services according to specified schedules which define the routes, fares, vehicle allocation and timetables. There were 2 220 green minibuses operating 299 routes and carrying 986 000 passengers every day in 1998.

Red minibuses operate without specified schedules. They are not required to operate on fixed routes or timetables and are free to set fares. At the end of 1998, 2 123 red minibuses were carrying 769 000 passengers daily.

In line with government's policy to convert red minibuses to green, more new scheduled routes will continue to be identified. During 1998, a green minibus operator selection exercise was conducted to select suitable operators to operate a total of 19 new routes.

Taxis

At the end of 1998, there were 15 250 urban taxis (coloured red), 2 838 New Territories taxis (green) and 50 Lantau taxis (blue), carrying a daily average of 1.1