Passenger Opinion Survey on Outlying Island Ferry Services

The Transport Department has completed a survey on five outlying ferry services to obtain passengers' views on the level of satisfaction with the existing services and their suggestions for improvements. The overall satisfaction indices for these services ranged from 64 to 70 for regular users and from 68 to 73 for holiday users.

The Passenger Opinion Survey was conducted between January and March this year and more than 3,000 passengers were interviewed either on board vessels or by telephone, covering regular and holiday users of the five ferry routes to Cheung Chau, Peng Chau, Mui Wo , Yung Shue Wan and Sok Kwu Wan of Lamma Island.

Commenting on the survey results, a Transport Department spokesman said the satisfaction indices would serve as a useful reference to assess passengers' satisfaction on the different service aspects of the five routes.

"The findings would provide a reference to the operators to improve their services in the future," the spokesman said.

According to the results of the survey, ferry passengers attached great importance to service reliability, service schedule, comfort of vessels and fare level.

The respondents were also asked to give suggestions on areas where they would like to see improvements. Areas suggested included mostly service reliability, frequency, comfort of vessels and fare level. However, the survey revealed that most respondents were not willing to pay more for changes such as improving the off-peak frequency, increasing air-conditioned seats or lowering the holiday fares to the same level as weekday fares.

In response to the survey, the Transport Department and the ferry operators concerned, New World First Ferry Services Ltd and Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry Ltd are examining various measures with a view to introducing reasonable improvements at affordable prices to meet passenger needs and expectation.

"It is hoped that through local consultations, practical proposals that could meet passengers' needs and expectations at an affordable fare level could be worked out to further improve the ferry service for the outlying islands," the spokesman said.

The survey findings and the suggested improvement measures will be reported to the Transport Advisory Committee and LegCo Panel on Transport.

Further discussions will be made at District Council Traffic and Transport Committee and various Area Committees will also be consulted in June/July.

The overall satisfaction indices of the survey by ferry route is as follows:

End/Saturday, May 20, 2000

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