Service adjustments of some franchised bus routes
*************************************************

     The Transport Department (TD) said today (January 15) that to align with the Government's announcement of the series of tightened social distancing measures to curb the spread of Omicron in the community, and to cope with the drop in patronage, the TD approved Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB), Citybus Limited (Citybus) on January 6 to adjust the frequencies of a total of 341 routes after 8pm from January 7 to 20. The three bus companies have reviewed their latest operational and service arrangements, submitted applications to the TD again for temporary service adjustments of some bus routes to better utilise resources.

     The TD has examined the applications taking into account factors such as the extent of 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 adjustments, and has further approved 134 bus routes out of the abovementioned routes for frequencies adjustments during non-peak hours before 8pm from January 17 to 20. Among the routes approved for frequency adjustment, in general the headway will be lengthened by no more than five minutes while the extended headway will not exceed 30 minutes. In addition, six individual all-night bus service with low patronage with alternative services available have been approved to be suspended, or having extended headway to not more than 60 minutes. 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.

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

     In addition, the frequencies of individual bus routes mainly serving tourists, heading to land boundary control points and the airport have already been adjusted to limited service or have suspended the service due to the anti-pandemic measures on boundary control implemented earlier.

Ends/Saturday, January 15, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:00

NNNN