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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Fu-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (November 20) :

Question :

Regarding the fares of green minibuses, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the criteria adopted by the Transport Department for approving the fares of green minibus routes, and the respective weights of "journey distance" and "service area" in the criteria;

(b) of the existing mechanism for adjusting the fares of green minibuses, and whether it has assessed if the mechanism is comprehensive and if there are areas for improvement;

(c) whether it has assessed if the existing levels of fares of various green minibus routes are reasonable; if it has, of the results as well as the routes in respect of which fares are too high; if not, whether it will consider conducting such an assessment; and

(d) of the number of complaints the authority received from the public about excessively high fares of green minibuses in the past three years, and how it followed up these complaints?

Reply :

Madam President,

Fares for green minibus ("GMB") services are determined in accordance with a distance-based fare scale which applies to all GMB services. GMB operators may set their fares at a level below that in the fare scale, subject to approval by Transport Department ("TD") as the GMB fare level is stipulated as a condition in the operating licence for the service concerned.

The GMB fare scale is reviewed annually by TD having regard to the general economic situation, the overall financial position of the GMB trade and public acceptance. GMB operators may submit applications for fare adjustments at any time. Such applications are examined by TD carefully on a case-by-case basis, taking into account relevant factors including the passenger demand pattern and operating condition of the service, the financial performance of the operator and acceptability to passengers etc. The existing fare adjustment mechanism has been working well.

The existing levels of GMB fare were determined by TD after considering carefully all the relevant factors as mentioned in paragraph 2 above. In the process, TD also examined in detail the operating and financial performance data submitted by GMB operators on a regular basis.

There are at present 341 GMB routes operating in Hong Kong. Over the past three years, a total of 39 complaints about GMB fares involving 19 GMB routes were received. Among these 19 routes, the financial performance of 13 routes has not been satisfactory. Of the remaining 6 routes, section fares have been introduced on two of them after discussion between TD and the relevant operators. The other four are routes operating in Tseung Kwan O. The relevant operators have introduced fare concession scheme or GMB-rail interchange fare discounts respectively on these four routes recently.

End/Wednesday, November 20, 2002

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