Online guide to getting from A to B
Want to find the best route from one place to another by public transport? Help is on the way from the government in the form of the city's first comprehensive guide to public transport.
When launched by the Transport Department in the coming weeks, the Public Transport Enquiry System (PTES) theoretically will allow users to work out the best and cheapest route and how long it will take.
But even before it is in operation the system is under fire from critics, who say it is biased towards rail and inaccurate because it underestimates walking time.
The government says it is aware of their concerns and is still working on the software.
PTES - the first feature of a long-awaited Transport Information System that will be unveiled soon - consolidates for the first time data from all public transport, including buses and minibuses, the MTR, ferries, trams and taxis.
At present, commuters can only look up routes provided by individual operators on their websites, which give no information about links to other forms of transport.
The new system sets out to offer the costs and expected journey times for every option between a starting point and a destination. The options are ranked according to the journey time, which averages peak-hour and off-peak traffic.
But some operators say the system is misleading because it underestimates walking time on the streets and inside MTR stations. 'The MTR is said to be the quickest transport between Sogo in Causeway Bay and the Central ferry pier, but everyone knows it takes a long time to walk from Central station to the pier,' a source from an operator said.
The system also ignores certain bus routes, such as those with circulating itineraries, because they have neither a beginning nor an end, the source added.
The Transport Department said the system was still under trial and engineers were continuing to improve the quality of the software, taking into account all feedback and suggestions from transport operators and testers of the programme.
A government source said the software's final version would calculate walking time inside MTR stations - set at about three minutes between the station's entrance and its platforms - and also an estimated walking time from the exit to destination.
Another industry source who tested the software's trial version said it was not quite user-friendly. 'The system has no problem identifying big housing estates or important landmarks, but it may not identify a small rural village in the New Territories.'
Another tester said: 'If you are not sure about the location's name or you type a syllable wrong, you don't get the routes, no alternatives show.'
The government source said users could always check on the system's map if they were not certain about the names, although restaurants and theatres were not included as they were commercial facilities that moved about a lot.
Lawmakers have questioned why it has taken so long for the system - part of a transport package the department began studying in 2006 - to come into effect.
