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Following is a question by Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, in the Legislative Council today (November 12):
Question:
In 2011, the Government set up pilot low emission zones (LEZs) in Causeway Bay, Central and Mong Kok and encouraged franchised bus companies to deploy, as far as possible, buses meeting Euro IV or higher emission standards (low emission buses) to ply those routes passing the pilot LEZs. According to "A Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong" issued in 2013, the authorities will set up in 2015 LEZs in the aforesaid districts that ban the entry of non-low emission buses. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows, among the fleets of the three major franchised bus companies (i.e. Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited, Citybus Limited and New World First Bus Services Limited), the current numbers of low emission buses and their percentages in the total numbers; if it does not, of the reasons for that; whether it knows the timetables of these companies for replacing all their buses with low emission ones;
(2) whether it knows, among the buses currently deployed to ply the routes passing the pilot LEZs, the number of low emission buses and its percentage in the total number; if it does not, of the reasons for that; whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the setting up of pilot LEZs in reducing air pollution; and
(3) given that only non-low emission franchised buses will be banned from entering the LEZs which the authorities have planned to set up next year, whether the authorities will consider banning non-low emission vehicles of other categories (such as highly polluting commercial diesel vehicles) from entering the LEZs; if they will, of the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Franchised buses account for up to 40 per cent of the traffic volume on the busy roads in Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. Therefore, the establishment of LEZs for buses can help improve roadside air quality and protect public health.
In the 2010-11 Policy Address, the Government announced the setting up of pilot LEZs on the busy roads in Causeway Bay, Central and Mong Kok and encouraged franchised bus companies to deploy, as far as possible, low emission buses (meeting Euro IV or higher emission standards or Euro II and III buses retrofitted with selective catalytic reduction devices (SCRs) and diesel particulates filters (DPFs)) to ply those routes passing the pilot LEZs. Our target is to have, by the end of 2015, only low emission buses travelling on LEZs.
With respect to the questions raised by Hon Leung Yiu-chung, our reply is as follows:
(1) As at end of September 2014, the bus fleet of Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), Citybus Limited (CTB) and New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) had a total of 5,529 buses, 1,705 of them were low emission buses, accounting for about 30 per cent of the total. The details are set out in Annex I.
At present, the franchised bus companies have to use buses of less than 18 years old to provide franchised bus services. All pre-Euro buses have already been retired and all Euro I buses will be retired by 2015. Franchised bus companies are replacing these buses by new ones. For Euro II and III buses, the franchised bus companies are expediting the work on retrofitting them with SCRs and DPFs such that it can be completed by end of 2016 to upgrade their emission performance to that of Euro IV or above level. By then, there will only be about 440 Euro II and 470 Euro III buses which do not meet the retrofitting criteria and they will also be retired before 2019 and 2026 respectively.
(2) As at end of August 2014, there were about 1,100 low emission buses running past the three LEZs which was about 46 per cent of the total. If all the franchised buses that ply the routes passing the LEZs were low emission buses, the amount of respirable suspended particulates and nitrogen oxides emitted from vehicles within the zones could be reduced by about 20 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
KMB has estimated that it can complete deployment of its low emission buses within the LEZs before end of 2015. According to the latest estimate by CTB and NWFB, due to the possible delay of the new rail lines on Hong Kong Island, the slower than expected implementation of bus route rationalisation and the increase in demand for low emission buses in other districts, only about 87 per cent of the buses in LEZs will be low emission buses by end 2015 and they will be able to meet the target by the third quarter of 2016. We are examining with CTB and NWFB all possible alternatives for achieving the LEZ target the soonest possible.
(3) We do not have any plan to ban non-low emission vehicles of other categories from entering the LEZs. The franchised buses account for up to 40 per cent of the traffic volume on the busy roads in Central, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok. As the Government has rolled out in March this year an ex-gratia payment scheme for phasing out pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles that include lorries, light buses and non-franchised buses, all these vehicles will also be phased out progressively before 2020.
Ends/Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:05
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