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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Che-cheung and a reply by the Acting Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Yau Shing-mu, in the Legislative Council today (October 30):
Question:
The operator of the ferry service between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo indicated earlier that it would discontinue the operation of that ferry route in November this year due to operating difficulties. Upon cessation of the service, some 40 primary pupils going to school in Discovery Bay from Mui Wo by ferry every day and over a thousand visitors to these places during the holidays will be affected. It will take those pupils one and a half hours each journey to go to school by bus instead, which is three times of that by ferry. To show its solicitude for the affected school children and residents, the ferry operator has recently announced that it will continue operating the ferry route until February 9 next year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the Government's initiative to help the affected school children so that they need not spend three hours on travelling to and from school every day under the circumstances of the existing ferry operator discontinuing the ferry service between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo with no other operator taking over the operation;
(b) given the report that the discontinuation of the aforesaid ferry service by its existing operator is due to the substantial rise in costs caused by the Marine Department's proposed implementation of measures to enhance vessel and navigational safety, but some of such measures aim primarily to facilitate collecting evidence and tracking down the responsible party by the enforcement authorities in the wake of an accident, rather than enhancing navigational safety, of the views received by the Government during consultation with the industry on such safety measures, as well as the Government's response to such views, including whether it will amend the relevant measures in response to the request of the industry; and
(c) given the report that owing to the small population of outlying islands, ferry service operators may still encounter operating difficulties even if high ferry fares are charged, and that the Government has subsidised ferry services between outlying islands and urban areas on a number of occasions, why the Government has never subsidised other ferry services the operators of which have similarly encountered operating difficulties; whether it will consider providing the relevant subsidies; and whether it will consider, when providing subsidies to ferry service operators, requiring them to take over ferry services of those routes which are not provided with subsidies and have been discontinued due to operating difficulties; if it will not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
On knowing the intention of the operator of the licensed ferry service between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo to discontinue the service, the Transport Department (TD) immediately discussed with the operator on various measures to improve the financial position of the route with a view to continuing the service. After much further discussion, recently the operator undertook to continue the service at least until February 9, 2014. TD will continue the discussion with the operator including examining the possibility of adjusting ferry schedule or fare as appropriate. If the operator is determined to discontinue the service, a re-tender exercise will be arranged for the ferry route to identify a suitable new operator.
Our reply to various parts of the question raised by the Hon Leung Che-cheung is as follows:
(a) TD has taken the initiative to contact the school which affected students attend and inform the school of the possible discontinuation of ferry service between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo. TD also assists the school and parents to contact other ferry and land transport operators (including school bus operators) to provide alternative transport services.
Besides, inter-changing to a ferry or kaito in Peng Chau may also be an alternative when travelling between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo. Since the operator of the ferry route between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo also runs a kaito service between Discovery Bay and Peng Chau, TD has requested the operator to provide special kaito service between Discovery Bay and Peng Chau when school finishes in the afternoon so as to reduce inconvenience to students if it finally decides to discontinue the service between Discovery Bay and Mui Wo.
TD will continue to consider if these alternative options are feasible. Meanwhile, as I have stated above, if the incumbent operator eventually gives up operation, TD will arrange a re-tender exercise and identify an operator willing to take over the service.
(b) Since the vessel collision near Lamma Island on October 1 last year, the Marine Department (MD) has held over 20 meetings with representatives of the trade through various working groups. They have discussed and drawn up measures to follow up on the recommendations on improvement in the report of the independent Commission of Inquiry and made by the experts commissioned by MD, with a view to enhancing marine safety. Both parties share the same goal of enhancing the safety for local passenger carrying vessels.
After rounds of consultation with the trade, improvement measures for the first phase will be implemented shortly. These include deploying a crew member to assist look-out in addition to the coxswain during hours of darkness and in reduced visibility, maintaining a muster list, determining the standard on number of crew on board, printing the name or registration number of vessels on life jackets and requiring watertight doors be fitted with alarming system.
The medium and long term measures include requiring local vessels to install an Automatic Identification System (AIS), Very High Frequency (VHF) radio and radar. The measure referred to by the Hon Leung is probably about AIS installation. This measure is a recommendation made in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Collision of Vessels near Lamma Island on 1 October 2012. MD is of the view that vessels equipped with AIS will allow the detection of their navigation status by other vessels which enables early collision avoidance actions as necessary. This can prevent collision. In addition, when vessels need rescue or assistance in case of emergency or accident, AIS will quickly and accurately show the location of the vessels, thus expediting the rescue missions. Meanwhile, the navigational data could be used for traffic management planning and investigation of accidents. MD will continue to consult the trade and adopt a fair and reasonable approach in addressing the concerns of the industry premised on the principle of ensuring marine safety. MD will also provide suitable assistance to shipowners or relevant persons when in genuine need.
(c) It is the Government's established policy that public transport services should be run by the private sector in accordance with prudent commercial principles to achieve operating efficiency. As there has long been a lack of growth in patronage and given the escalating operating costs of the ferry services, the Government has been providing various measures to reduce the operating costs of the ferry services, which include taking over the responsibility of pier maintenance, waiving fuel duty and reimbursing pier rentals and exempting vessel licence fees for ferry services under the Elderly Concessionary Fares Scheme. In addition, ferry service operators are allowed to sublet shops at the piers to increase non-fare box revenue to cross-subsidise their operations. These measures are applicable to all ferry operators.
Besides, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved funding in 2010 to provide extra Special Helping Measures (SHMs) for the operators of the six major outlying island ferry routes (namely "Central - Cheung Chau", "Inter-islands", "Central - Mui Wo", "Central - Peng Chau", "Central - Yung Shue Wan" and "Central - Sok Kwu Wan" routes ) during the three-year licence period from mid-2011 to mid-2014. After the mid-term review, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council again approved funding in July this year to maintain these SHMs during the next three-year licence period from mid-2014 to mid-2017.
The reason for the provision of SHMs to the above six major routes is that ferry is basically the only external mode of transport for these outlying islands. Its service is indispensable. Nor is there any suitable alternative transport service. Without the Government's SHMs, either there will be huge fare increases, or the operators will refuse to maintain services due to great losses, thus affecting tens of thousands of passengers. The objective of SHMs is to ensure the continuation of such essential ferry services through enhancing their long-term financial viability and maintaining fare stability. On the one hand, we need to support essential services which otherwise would not be financially viable, and on the other hand let the residents of outlying islands shoulder the appropriate fare responsibility.
Regarding ferry services for outlying islands other than the above six routes, the Government will properly process eligible operators' request for SHMs, if any, in accordance with the above policy principles.
Ends/Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:02
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