HK: Services of some franchised bus routes adjusted from March 4 to 16

Hong Kong Transport Department (TD) said on March 2 that in view of the severity of the epidemic situation, increasing number of persons infected with COVID-19 or under isolation/quarantine, franchised bus companies are facing critical manpower shortage. Also, to cope with the further drop in patronage after the tightened social distancing measures implemented by the Government, Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited, New World First Bus Services Limited, Citybus Limited, Long Win Bus Company Limited and New Lantao Bus Company (1973) Limited applied to the TD for another round of service reductions (including suspension of some routes with alternative public transport services available, recreational routes operated during weekends and overnight routes) to maintain their operations and deploy their resources.

The TD has examined the applications taking into account factors such as the absence situation of the bus captains of the franchised bus companies, the extent of patronage drop of the routes concerned, occupancy, availability of alternative public transport services and efficient deployment of resources, and has further approved the five franchised bus companies to implement temporary service adjustments from March 4 to 16 inclusive, including suspension of 98 routes with alternative public transport services available, five recreational routes operated during weekends and one overnight route.

The TD will continue to closely monitor the overall franchised bus services according to the actual circumstances and keep close communication with the bus companies to minimize the impact while coping with 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-epidemic measures on boundary control implemented earlier.

For details of the service adjustments, please note the announcements on the websites of the bus companies: