ENG-2000 — Page 303

TRANSPORT

Minibuses

Hong Kong's minibuses are licensed to carry a maximum of 16 passengers. At the end of 2000, there were 6 394 licensed minibuses. Of these, 4 343 were public light buses. (PLBs), and 2 051 were private light buses. Private light buses are authorised to carry only group passengers and are not allowed to collect separate fares.

There are two types of PLBs: 'green' and 'red' minibuses. Green minibuses provide scheduled services with fixed routeing, fares, vehicle allocation and timetables stipulated by the Transport Department. There were 2 360 green minibuses operating 320 routes and carrying about one million passengers a day in 2000. Red minibuses are not required to operate on fixed routes or timetables and they may set their own fares, but they are subject to certain restrictions on service areas. At the end of 2000, there were 1983 red minibuses that carried 551 000 passengers daily.

A six-month trial on the use of alternative fuel for minibuses began in June. A total of 15 minibuses, powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or electricity, joined the trial. If the trial is successful, operators will be encouraged to switch over to use the cleaner alternatives.

Taxis

At the end of 2000, 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 million, 210 000 and 1 400 passengers respectively.

In 2000, a number of schemes were launched to improve the quality of taxi service. These included two taxi driver award schemes, through which recognition was given to about 500 drivers for their good performance; a self-learning English and Putonghua training programme distributed free of charge to enhance the language proficiency of taxi drivers; and quarterly newsletters published to enhance communication among taxi operators and the Government.

During the year, the Transport Department continued to introduce relaxations for taxis at restricted zones to strengthen their role as a personalised, point-to-point service. Restrictions at a total of 75 locations were relaxed in 2000 to allow taxis to pick up and set down passengers. The law was also amended to permit the provision of taxi drop-off points in restricted zones and, in this regard, 11 taxi drop-off points were designated in 2000.

The conversion of diesel taxis to the cleaner liquefied petroleum gas taxis progressed smoothly during the year. To provide incentives for the conversion, a cash grant scheme was introduced, with $40,000 given for each conversion. LPG refilling capacity also increased substantially with the opening of the five dedicated LPG stations in October and November, bringing the total number of LPG stations to 12 and offering capacity for 8 000 taxis. At end-2000, 4 305 LPG taxis were operating on the roads.

Ferries

Ferries provide an essential mode of transport for the outlying islands. In the inner harbour and for the new development areas, ferries offer a supplementary mode of transport to buses and the railways.

Major ferry services are provided largely by the Star Ferry Company Limited (SF) and the New World First Ferry Services Limited (NWFF).

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