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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Hok-ming and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow (in the absence of the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works), at the Legislative Council meeting today (November 8) :
Question:
Many residents in Tsing Yi have recently relayed to me their strong request for additional cross-boundary coach (CBC) services between Tsing Yi and Huanggang. In its reply to a question on introducing additional CBC services in this Council on May 23, 2001, the Administration advised that it was exploring the feasibility of providing a CBC terminus at the Tsing Yi Airport Railway Station. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has completed the above feasibility study; if it has, of the findings of the study and whether it has released the findings to the public; if it has not, of the reasons;
(b) of the respective details of patronage and frequencies of the existing CBC routes;
(c) whether it has received any requests for additional CBC routes; if it has, of the authorities' response; and
(d) whether currently the authorities have any plans to re-examine the introduction of additional CBC services and whether CBC routes between Tsing Yi and Huanggang are included?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Transport Department had reviewed the short-haul cross-boundary coach services between Huanggang Control Point and different parts of Hong Kong. Survey results revealed that the number of passengers travelling between Kwai Tsing district and Huanggang Control Point accounted for less than 1 % of the total number of passengers. We therefore considered it unnecessary to set up a cross-boundary coach terminus at the Tsing Yi Airport Railway Station. We have submitted information papers to the Legislative Council Panel on Transport in August 2004 and July 2005, reporting the progress of regularising cross-boundary coach services.
The numbers of cross-boundary coach trips and passengers from January to September 2006 are as follows :
Daily number
of average
Daily average southbound
number of and northbound
one-way trips passengers
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Short-haul services 1,140 48,800
(via Lok Ma Chau/
Huanggang Control
Point only)
Long-haul services 1,200 34,800
(via all control points)
As cross-boundary coaches travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland, they have to be regulated jointly by the governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Province, and any adjustment to the level of service would require the agreement of both governments before it can be implemented. We have received requests for introducing more cross-boundary coach routes. However, as there is very limited space at the Huanggang Control Point that can be used as cross-boundary coach terminus, and the traffic at Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Control Point is already very busy, we have no plans at this stage to introduce more short-haul cross-boundary coach routes between Huanggang Control Point and other parts of Hong Kong (including Tsing Yi). We will, however, closely monitor the traffic conditions at all control points and passenger demand upon the commissioning of new boundary control points, and review if there is any room to enhance the service level.
Ends/Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:13
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