Hong Kong has a diverse multi-modal public transport system, comprising a Kowloon-Canton Railway, a Mass Transit Railway, an Airport Railway, a Light Rail Transit, a tramway, franchised buses, public light buses, taxis, non-franchised buses, a funicular cable tramway and ferry services, extending to almost every part of the territory. Rehabus services are also available for persons with mobility difficulties.
Public transport patronage increased in 2005 by about 1.1% over 2004 to 11.17 million passengers per day. The railways, which carried 4.05 million passengers per day in 2005, overtook franchised buses to be the largest passenger carrying mode. Railway patronage increased by 5.9% compared with last year due to the opening of new railways including West Rail in late 2003 , Tsim Sha Tsui Extension and Ma On Shan rail in late 2004 and Disney Resort Line in 2005. Coming next were the franchised buses, which carried 3.92 million passengers per day in 2005 . representing a decrease of about 4.0% against 2004. Railways, being the most environmentally friendly form of mass transport, will continue to expand in network and will form the backbone of Hong Kong's transport system, with other modes playing a supplementary although still important role to ensure that commuters will continue to have choice of services. For franchised buses, there were continuing improvements in the quality of franchised buses. By end 2005, about 91% of the franchised buses were air-conditioned buses and about 64% were Euro II or above buses with less emission. To ensure more efficient use of bus resources and to provide passengers with more choice of routes, bus-bus interchange schemes were promoted. In 2005, a total of 43 bus-bus interchange schemes were introduced, increasing the total number of schemes to 191 schemes.
The market share of ferry remained at about 1.4% in 2005 with 153 600 daily passenger trips. As at end 2005, there were altogether 12 franchised and licensed ferry operators providing 29 regular passenger ferry services and 2 dangerous goods vehicular ferry services to the outlying islands and across the harbour. |
