Hong Kong's first double-decker hydrogen bus made its debut on Sunday (Feb. 25), on Citybus's route 20 between Kai Tak and Cheung Sha Wan.
The first bus left Kai Tak's Muk An Street at 11 am, carrying some 100 passengers.
The bus arrived at its Cheung Sha Wan destination 40 minutes after its departure – similar to the time a regular bus takes to complete the journey.
Citybus presented a certificate and a water bottle made of recycled plastic to every passenger on the maiden trip – to drive home the message that the only emission from the bus was water vapour.
Roger Ma, Citybus's general manager of operations, said the company plans to purchase five more hydrogen buses by the end of this year.
He added that some of the hydrogen buses may take up routes on Hong Kong Island in the future - once a fuel station there is up and running.
"The next hydrogen refill station will probably be completed by the end of this year so by then we hope to deploy hydrogen buses to serve Hong Kong Island," he said.
"Why we currently only deploy hydrogen buses to routes serving Kowloon side, it's because our existing hydrogen refill station is only located on the Kowloon side and one of the main limitations is that according to regulation, the hydrogen buses cannot go through tunnels," he said.
Ma announced that in the future, Citybus will also purchase five electric buses as a way to assess how well they function in comparison to hydrogen-powered vehicles.
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