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Transport operators say concessions no longer affordable
More than half a million bus passengers next year will pay fares up to five times higher than at present when bus companies cancel a range of special discounts.
The companies say they can no longer afford the concessions - which include a HK$2 flat fare on Sundays and public holidays for elderly passengers and same-day-return discounts - in the face of rising fuel, labour and maintenance costs.
A legislator criticised the companies for lacking social responsibility by cancelling the discounts at a time of falling oil prices.
Elderly passengers and children will continue to receive the half-fare discount they now enjoy. But the four companies - Kowloon Motor Bus, Long Win, New World First Bus and its wholly-owned subsidiary Citybus - said yesterday they would not extend the other concessions, which were introduced three years ago with a fare-adjustment mechanism.
That means 228,000 passengers will pay 5 to 10 per cent more a day when the same-day return benefit is cancelled - on February 19 for routes run by individual operators, and July 1 for jointly run cross-harbour routes.
And 295,000 elderly passengers now paying a flat rate of HK$2 even on trips costing HK$20 on Sundays and public holidays will pay the half fare they are charged on other days.
That means they could be paying five times as much.
Lawmakers condemned the move, which came just five months after the four companies raised fares in June, fearing that it might spark a chain reaction among other public transport operators.
The deputy chairman of the Legislative Council's transport panel, Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, asked: 'When oil prices escalated, [bus companies] said their burden was heavy, but now oil prices have come down to a reasonable level, where is their corporate social responsibility?'
The MTR Corporation removed a HK$2 concession for the elderly on December 1 - one year after its rail operations were merged with those of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation. There are also fears that other MTR concessions introduced upon last year's merger, a package that costs the corporation HK$600 million a year, might also be scrapped upon expiry in June.
Kowloon Motor Bus said it could no longer afford the concession as the company had incurred a deficit of HK$160 million in the first half of this year as fuel prices, wages, tolls, and repair and maintenance costs had all gone up. But that was before the introduction of an average 4.5 per cent fare rise in June, which it imposed largely on the most profitable cross-harbour routes. The losses were also recorded at a time when the crude oil price peaked at US$147 a barrel - but it has now receded to about US$43.
A spokeswoman said the fall in oil prices only allowed some breathing room, while the rate of increase in June was so slight it had not been able to wipe out the company's losses.
New World First Bus offered a similar explanation, saying the net profit of its two companies had declined severely in recent years.
A spokeswoman said the company had strived to rationalise its bus routes and resources, but it needed to improve its financial situation.
The two companies said they would retain bus-bus interchange concessions on more than 300 routes, while the elderly and children would continue to pay half fare.
Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng said the government would encourage public transport operators to offer fare concessions to passengers, but it was a commercial decision for the companies.



End of fare discounts to hit 500,000 bus passengers