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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Chin-shek and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (July 9):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a)of the current overnight franchised bus routes between the urban areas and the North District, Tai Po and Tsuen Wan respectively, and list out information such as the frequency, destinations, fare, distance of the journey and estimated total journey time of each bus route; and
(b)given that some residents in the North District have relayed to me that although the North District is farthest away from the urban areas among the above three districts, there are very few direct overnight franchised bus routes between the district and the urban areas, whether the Government will require the franchised bus companies concerned to operate additional direct overnight bus routes between the North District and the urban areas for the convenience of the passengers who need the service; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) There are at present a total of four overnight bus routes plying between the urban areas and the North District, Tai Po and Tsuen Wan. Information on these bus routes is set out in the Annex.
(b) Passengers from the North District can use overnight bus service no. N270 to go to Shatin Central for interchange with the following overnight routes to other districts:
-Bus route no. N170 (Shatin Central – Wah Fu);
-Bus route no. N271 (Fu Hang – Hunghom Station);
-Bus route no. N42 (Yiu On – Tung Chung Station);
-Green minibus ("GMB") route no. 61S (Wo Che – Mongkok Station); and
-GMB route no. 482 (Shatin Central – Tsuen Wan Central).
In addition, passengers from the North District may use two overnight GMB routes to travel to and from Mongkok and Lam Tin directly.
Currently, the average utilisation rate of bus route no. N270 (Sheung Shui – Shatin Central) is about 17%. Given that passengers from the North District can use the above overnight public transport services to travel to and from the urban areas and taken into account the effective use of bus resources, the Transport Department ("TD") has no plans to introduce additional direct overnight bus routes plying between the North District and the urban areas. Nevertheless, TD will continue to monitor and review the supply and use of the overnight public transport services.
Ends/Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Issued at HKT 14:56
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