Lawmakers are reluctant to pledge advance support to a HK$33 million subsidy to buy six hybrid buses for a two-year trial because of concerns it would be a waste of money.
At the environmental affairs panel meeting yesterday, legislators asked why the proposed 24-month trial of six diesel-electric double-deckers could only begin in the middle of next year. They also asked why electric buses were not also being tested.
Kam Nai-wai of the Democratic Party raised the fear that public funding would go down the drain if the franchised bus companies eventually chose not to replace their ageing fleets with hybrid buses.
'What are you going to do with their franchises after the trial?' he said. 'Why doesn't the government simply buy up the whole fleet from the bus operators and just lease the buses back for them to run so that we can set a clear timetable for a fleet upgrade?'
Audrey Eu Yuet-mee of the Civic Party said progress was too slow and too little had been done since Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen pledged in his October policy address that 'it is our ultimate goal to switch all franchised buses running on the road to emissions-free vehicles'.
A hybrid bus can in theory save up to a third of the fuel and emit up to half the emissions of conventional diesel buses. But the price is estimated at HK$5.5 million, about double that of a diesel bus.
