Transport Department's response to POOA's statement

In response to the statement by the Public Omnibus Operators Association Ltd. (POOA) today (July 25), a spokesman of the Transport Department (TD) said: "TD is aware of the difference in views and intentions of the various Residents' Services (RS) operators on their future operation, arising from their different estimation of the effect of the MTR Tseung Kwan O Extension (TKE) to RS operators."

The spokesman said: "TD has been in close liaison with the user group representatives and the non-franchised bus operators on the affected RS starting from early this year. Some may like to continue their operations for a while, whereas some has already decided to discontinue service when TKE opens, as they understand their routes may not be viable."

"There are 23 RS now operating in TKO and Sai Kung. There will be no change to 10 RS which are not expected to be affected by the opening of TKE, whereas the 13 RS which provide a feeder service to Lam Tin MTR station or overlap the railway are expected to lose passengers with the operation of TKE," the spokesman added.

The spokesman said that to provide passengers some time for adjustment and a reasonable choice of service, TD would adopt a phasing approach. The Department will observe the change in travel pattern after TKE opens and make close liaison with the parties concerned on the operation of the service.

End/Thursday, July 25, 2002