More than half of trips in district may be cut
More than half of the 26 bus routes serving Eastern District may be axed or have the number of their trips cut if a proposal by the Transport Department is approved. And cuts in the other 17 districts may follow.
Hong Kong Island could lose at least 163 bus trips a day, or 4,890 trips a month, if the department's latest development plan to remove four routes that either end at or pass by Eastern District wins support from the district council. Another 11 bus routes may be shortened, or run less frequently.
But a district councillor said the council was unlikely to accept such drastic changes.
Sources familiar with the plan said this was only the first step of a major realignment scheme that sought to consolidate and reduce the number of buses running along the island's main arteries such as King's Road and Hennessy Road.
'At any bus stop along King's Road, a passenger always has dozens of bus lines to choose from, all going more or less along the same route,' a government source said.