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Following is a question by the Hon Gary Fan and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (November 11):
Question:
At present, students aged between 12 and 25 who are currently enrolled on a full-time day course offered by a recognised institution may apply for Personalised Octopus encoded with "Student Status" (student Octopus) to enjoy fare concessions when travelling on MTR. On the other hand, in 2008, the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) ceased to offer single journey fare concessions to students, and the current concessionary single journey tickets are to be used only by children aged 3 to 11 and senior citizens aged 65 or above. I have learnt that recently, when a secondary school student who forgot to carry his student Octopus used a concessionary single journey ticket, which charged a fare comparable to that charged for using a student Octopus, to ride on MTR, he was caught by a staff member of MTRCL. A surcharge of $500 was imposed on him for contravening the Mass Transit Railway By laws (Cap. 556 sub. leg. B) (Bylaws). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows, in each of the past five years, (i) the respective numbers of verbal and written warnings issued to passengers who failed to produce a valid ticket, (ii) the number of cases in which passengers failing to produce a valid ticket were convicted and the general penalties imposed on them, and (iii) among the cases in which warnings were issued and the conviction cases, the respective numbers of those involving the use of concessionary single journey tickets;
(2) given that the fare for riding on MTR using a concessionary single journey ticket is generally higher than that for taking the same journey using a student Octopus, whether it knows the criteria adopted by MTRCL for determining the fare difference and the surcharges to be imposed on passengers for contravening the Bylaws;
(3) whether it knows if MTRCL will issue guidelines to its frontline staff members to stipulate that when dealing with contravention cases involving the use of concessionary single journey tickets, they may exercise discretion to only issue verbal or written warnings to passengers who have contravened the Bylaws and put the incidents on record based on the merits of individual cases, instead of imposing surcharges on or instituting prosecutions against such persons;
(4) whether it knows the means by which MTRCL publicised in the past five years the restrictions on the use of concessionary single journey tickets; whether MTRCL will step up its publicity efforts to enable the public to have a clear understanding of such restrictions; and
(5) as some members of the public consider that the different fares currently payable by students using student Octopus and by those using single journey tickets are prone to cause confusion, whether the Government will urge MTRCL to reinstate the previous practice of permitting passengers holding valid student cards to use single journey tickets with fare concessions?
Reply:
President,
The MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) offers a wide range of fare concessions and promotional schemes to benefit different sectors of the community. These include interchange discounts, Monthly Pass Extras/Day Pass, concessions for the elderly, children, eligible students and persons with disabilities, etc. According to the MTRCL, an average of about 500 000 passenger trips per day are enjoying the student concessionary fares in the MTR network under the MTR Student Travel Scheme (the Scheme). In 2014, the fare concessions enjoyed by students amounted to about $0.7 billion.
As early as in 1981, the pre-merger MTRCL began offering fare concessions of about 50 per cent discount to eligible students aged between 12 and 25 who enrolled on a full-time day course offered by a recognised institution in Hong Kong. At that time, eligible students might apply for an "MTR Student Travel Card" every school year and with the possession of this card might use a concessionary single journey ticket or a Student Common Stored Value Ticket to travel on MTR. The then concessionary fare for students was the same as that for the elderly and children, which was about half the fare for adults. In 2002, the MTRCL ceased to issue the "MTR Student Travel Card" and introduced in its place a Personalised Octopus card encoded with "Student Status" (student Octopus card) for identification purpose to continue to offer concessionary fare to eligible students.
The former Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) did not offer concessionary fares to students before the rail merger. After the rail merger, the MTRCL extended the student concessionary fares to the pre-merger KCR network on September 28, 2008 so that the Scheme was made applicable to the entire MTR network (Note). On the same day, the MTRCL stipulated that the concessionary single journey tickets would only be available for children aged 3 to 11 and senior citizens aged 65 or above. Students aged 12 or above must use a Personalised Octopus card with "Student Status" if they wish to enjoy fare concessions; if they purchase and use a single journey ticket, fare would be charged at the adult fare level. For the convenience of students who only carry a small amount of cash with them, the minimum add-value amount of a student Octopus card is $10 while that for an ordinary adult octopus card is $50.
My reply to the various parts of the Hon Gary Fan's question is as follows:
(1) Under bylaw 10 of the Mass Transit Railway By-laws (By-laws), all tickets issued by the MTRCL are issued subject to the By-laws and the conditions of issue. Bylaw 15(1)(d) of the By-laws stipulates that if a person holds a concessionary ticket and does not meet any of the conditions upon which the ticket is issued shall be regarded as not having paid his fare and shall be liable both to pay a surcharge and to deliver up his ticket to an MTR official. According to the Conditions of Issue of Tickets of the MTRCL, a passenger must produce any ticket for inspection at any time upon demand by any official of the Corporation. For the purpose of determining a passenger's entitlement to usage of a particular category of ticket, the Corporation may require the passenger to produce satisfactory proof of identity or evidence of entitlement. Any person who contravenes the above stipulations can be regarded as not having paid his fare and is liable to pay a surcharge at $500.
MTR station staff and Ticket Inspection Unit staff perform ticket inspection work within the MTR areas from time to time every day. Any passenger found to have breached the By-laws will be requested to pay a surcharge. In general, only when the passenger refuses to pay the surcharge will the MTRCL consider initiating legal proceedings to collect the same. The statistics relating to the cases of failure to pay fares or travelling without a valid ticket in the MTR heavy rail network in the past five years are at the Annex. The MTRCL has not maintained statistics on the verbal warnings issued.
(2) As mentioned above, the MTRCL has stipulated that the concessionary single journey tickets can only be used by the senior citizens and children. Students aged 12 or above must use a Personalised Octopus card encoded with "Student Status" in order to enjoy concessionary fares for students. As for the calculation of individual fare adjustments, including those for the adult single journey ticket and Octopus, the MTRCL has all along applied the following guiding principles:
(i) adjustments to Octopus fares are in units of 10 cents; and
(ii) adjustments to single journey ticket fares are in units of 50 cents (as MTR Ticket Issuing Machines accept coins with value of 50 cents, 1 dollar, 2 dollars, 5 dollars and 10 dollars).
Application of the above fare adjustment principles may lead to differences between the adult fares for the single journey ticket and those for Octopus. The concessionary single journey ticket fares and concessionary Octopus fares, which being about half of the adult fare for single journey tickets and Octopus respectively, may also show discrepancies.
(3) The MTRCL provides operational guidelines which set out the clauses of the By-laws and procedures to be observed by staff when handling passengers who breach the By-laws. This is to ensure that when enforcing the By-laws, front-line staff will handle cases with fairness based on clear criteria. Generally speaking, for breaches in respect of the use of concessionary single journey tickets, MTRCL staff will in the first instance explain to those found in breach of Bylaws the requirements with which passengers should comply. Depending on individual cases and special circumstances (for example, first-time offenders who are not considered wilfully breaching the By-laws), front-line staff may consider issuing written warnings instead of imposing a surcharge on the passenger immediately. MTRCL is strengthening its staff training and communication with a view to ensuring that they have even clearer understanding on the operational guidelines when handling special cases.
(4) and (5) As mentioned above, the concessions under the Scheme and those for concessionary single journey tickets are not interchangeable. This information has been clearly displayed on Ticket Issuing Machines. The same information also appears on the application form, fare table and leaflet of the Scheme, as well as the MTRCL's website. According to MTRCL, both the Scheme and the fare arrangements for concessionary single journey tickets have generally been in smooth operation and hence need not be changed. The Corporation will continue to keep the situation in view and conduct a review where necessary.
The Government has been encouraging the MTRCL to review from time to time the effectiveness of fare concession schemes, and introduce suitable ones as far as possible having regard to the principle of financial prudence required of a listed company as the Corporation.
Note: The objective of the Scheme is to make it more convenient for local students to travel to and from school within Hong Kong, as well as to encourage them to use the MTR to take part in more extra-curricular activities. As such, the student fare concession has not been applicable to cross-boundary train service (including cross-boundary journeys to/from Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau stations, East Rail Line First Class, MTR Feeder Bus and Airport Express).
Ends/Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:01
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