Service adjustments for additional franchised bus routes

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The Transport Department (TD) announced today (December 9) that service adjustments for additional bus routes have been approved as there has been a continuous drastic drop in patronage of franchised bus companies due to the recent implementation of further tightened measures to reduce the flow of people and social contact to stop COVID-19 from spreading in the community.

To cope with the decreasing passenger demand and ensure efficient use of resources, Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) and Citybus Limited (Citybus) have submitted new applications to the TD for temporary service adjustment for some bus routes after reviewing their operational and service arrangements. The TD has examined the applications taking into account factors such as the extent of the patronage drop of the routes concerned, occupancy, the impact of the proposed service adjustment on the passenger waiting time, efficient use of bus resources deployment and public acceptability to the proposed frequency adjustment, and has approved the following bus companies to adjust the frequencies of a total of 116 routes from December 10 to 13. The details are as follows.

Bus company	No. of routes approved for frequency adjustment
KMB	88
NWFB	2
Citybus (except airport and North Lantau routes)	4
KMB/NWFB jointly operated	11
KMB/Citybus jointly operated	11
Total	116

Among the routes approved for frequency adjustment, the headway before 10pm (during peak and off-peak periods) will be lengthened by no more than five minutes while the headway after 10pm will be lengthened by no more than 10 minutes, and the extended headway will not exceed 30 minutes. Two bus routes/special departures with extremely low patronage have been approved to be suspended or have adjusted operating hours. The TD has requested the bus companies to closely monitor the change in passenger demand and consider strengthening services whenever necessary, and to allow more space for passengers if resources permit.

In addition, the TD gave approval to KMB, NWFB, Citybus and New Lantao Bus Company (1973) Limited on December 4 to adjust the frequencies of a total of 227 routes, and four routes with extremely low patronage were approved for suspension or to have operating hours adjusted from December 7 to 13.

The TD will consider the actual circumstances to review the service adjustment on a weekly basis, and keep close communication with the bus companies to closely monitor the operational situation and adjust the services according to passenger demand.

Ends/Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Issued at HKT 19:43

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