ENG-2012 — Page 267

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Transport

All franchised buses are now equipped with engines that meet the European emission standards (known as Euro engines). New buses purchased by franchised bus companies must be of Euro V emission standard (currently the highest European emission standard) and old buses would be replaced before they reach 18 years old. All Euro II and III buses have been retrofitted with Diesel Particulate Filters where possible to reduce particulate emission. A trial to retrofit Selective Catalytic Reduction devices on these buses to cut nitrogen oxides emissions is under way and franchised bus companies are preparing to test the use of hybrid and electric buses in Hong Kong. The Government is working with the franchised bus companies to deploy cleaner buses along busy urban corridors in Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. In 2012, about 700 daily bus trips were eliminated from the busy traffic corridors through service cancellation, frequency reduction, route truncation and route amalgamation. Bus stops have also been rationalised to reduce the number of stops along busy corridors.

Improvements by the franchised bus companies and the Government to public transport interchanges include electronic route information panels and customer service centres at some interchanges and refurbishing some of the interchanges and their ventilation systems.

All newly registered taxis equipped with internal combustion engine are required to run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or petrol to reduce air pollution. Incentive schemes to encourage the early replacement of diesel light buses with LPG ones were implemented between August 2002 and December 2005. Almost all taxis and 66 per cent of PLBs have switched to LPG.

Another incentive scheme between April 2007 and March 2010 encouraged the replacement of Pre-Euro and Euro I diesel commercial vehicles with more environment-friendly ones and about 17,100 applications were approved. A similar scheme was extended from July 2010 to June 2013 to cover replacement of Euro Il diesel commercial vehicles. By year-end, about 4,500 applications had been approved, with about 1,900 approved in 2012. In addition, a reduction in first registration tax has been offered to new buyers of environment-friendly commercial vehicles. As at year-end, about 13,600 applications had been processed, with about 7,700 applications approved in 2012.

The environmental impact of new transport projects, during both their construction and operation phases, is also monitored closely. Environmental mitigation measures are implemented where necessary to reduce this impact.

Pedestrian schemes have been introduced to reduce pedestrian congestion in streets in Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Stanley, Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, Yuen Long and Sheung Shui. Preliminary studies to improve the environment for pedestrians in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok, and engineering studies for similar improvements in Yuen Long, have been completed.

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