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Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Transport, Mr Kevin Ho Chi-ming, in the Legislative Council today (May 23):

Question :Regarding the cross-border direct bus services between Hong Kong and the Mainland, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the respective daily average numbers of bus trips and ridership in the past three years; and the estimated annual growth rates of daily ridership in the coming five years; and

(b) whether, to facilitate tourists travelling to the Mainland by direct buses, it will consider setting up termini for direct buses in the vicinity of the Olympic and Tsing Yi Stations of the Airport Railway, where information such as the routing, frequency and fare of the various bus routes will be displayed?

Reply:

Madam President,

The average daily number of cross boundary coach trips crossing the three road crossing points and the average daily patronage of the cross boundary coach services in the past three years are given below:

             Cross Boundary            Cross Boundary 
             Coach Trips               Coach Patronage 
             **************            ****************
1998              681                       14425
1999              699                       15799
2000              830                       17344

The average annual growth rate in cross boundary coach patronage in the past five years was 9.1 per cent. If future growth follows the same trend, the average daily cross boundary coach patronage will be around 29,000 by 2006.

At present, there is one off-street cross boundary coach terminus (CBCT) at Austin Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and a number of on-street terminating stops in different parts of Hong Kong. Government's policy on the provision of CBCTs is to provide off-street CBCTs as part of public transport interchanges at suitable locations to facilitate passenger accessibility and convenient interchange with other public transport services. In accordance with this policy and to meet the demand for CBCT facilities arising from the future increase in cross boundary coach patronage, we have plans to provide new CBCTs at railway stations or public transport interchanges. The locations of these planned CBCTs are selected having regard to the departure pattern of cross boundary coach trips.

Altogether, eight new CBCTs are planned for completion by 2006/07. One of the new CBCTs will be situated at the Airport Railway Kowloon Station, which will provide convenience to tourists travelling to and from the Mainland by cross boundary coaches as they can interchange with other public transport modes including the Airport Railway. It is planned to be completed by 2004/05. We are also exploring the possibility of providing a CBCT at the Tsing Yi Airport Railway Station.

A typical CBCT will be provided with regulator cum ticketing office with passenger waiting and toilet facilities. Passenger information facilities showing the timetable, faretable and routeing of the coach services will be provided for the convenience of passengers.

End/Wednesday, May 23, 2001

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