People are increasingly shunning the MTR and taxis for buses because of the economic slowdown, government figures show.
According to the Annual Transport Digest 2001 released by the Transport Department yesterday, the number of bus passengers went up last year to 38.1 per cent from 37.1 per cent in 1999.
An average of four million journeys were made by bus every day last year, accounting for the majority of public transportation.
About one million trips were made daily on Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB), 583,000 on CityBus and 510,000 on New World First Bus.
The increase in the number of bus commuters is believed to have come at the expense of the MTR. The proportion of MTR passengers fell from 20.3 per cent in 1999 to 19.6 per cent last year. An average of two million trips a day were made on the MTR last year.
However, both the bus companies and MTR resisted raising their fares in 1999 or last year.
Trips made by taxi fell slightly, with 12 per cent of people making most of their journeys by taxi compared with 12.2 per cent the previous year.