PUBLIC LIGHT BUS (Green Minibus and Red Minibus)
The public light bus (PLB) was introduced in 1969 with a view to regulating the illegal operation of minibuses at the time. The total number of PLB's has been restricted to 4350 since 1976 and at the end of 2009 there were 4349 licenced public light buses (PLB's). The seating capacity was originally 14 but was increased to 16 in 1988. In 1972 the government introduced the PLB scheduled service (ie Green Minibus or "GMB") as against the "Red Minibus" (RMB) which has no scheduled route and can adjust services and fares to suit demand. Green Minibus routes, schedules and fares are controlled by the Transport Department. PLB's also less commonly referred to as "Maxicabs". PLB's serve most areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories with just a few restrictions to areas of operation. In October 2008 one operator with a fleet of over 300 minibuses won permission to seek a judicial review of the current government restriction on number of buses and number of seats and this is still pending. Although the basic function of PLB's is to provide services to areas where patronage would not support high capacity carriers some services do partially or wholly duplicate franchised bus routes and often provide useful “feeder services” to MTR stations and transport interchanges. Where minibuses operate the same routes as franchised buses they generally tend to provide a faster and often more frequent service. Daily patronage of PLB's is about 1.86 million passenger trips. Since the government introduced generous incentive schemes in 2002 many PLB owners have replaced diesel vehicles with new LPG vehicles with the result that much of the fleet is now quite young. Incentives were also offered for owners to convert to electric powered vehicles but to date only one such vehicle exists. However in March 2010 three companies which operate almost half the entire fleet of minibuses announced they were cooperating with Hong Kong Productivity Council in a study to develop a hybrid fuel-electric plug-in minibus which could cut fuel consumption in half and reduce carbon emissions although the capital cost of the proposed minibuses would be higher than the current LPG and diesel models. If the study is successful the first hybrid minibuses could be introduced as early as 2012.
There two types of public light bus are distinguished by colour of the roof, green or red;
GREEN MINIBUS
There are 2977 (at end of 2009) green minibuses all of which are regulated by the Transport Department. They operate on 350 fixed routes with fixed fares and timetabled services, four of which are cross-harbour services. Several routes can be useful to tourists and the vast majority of buses accept Octopus Card fare payments. Services are usually frequent and some routes operate a 24 hour service.
A full list of routes, fares and service frequency can be found here;
Green minibus at Sai Kung Minibus Terminus
USING THE GREEN MINIBUS
The destination is displayed on the front of the bus in both Chinese and English (although the English lettering is often quite small and can be difficult to read from a distance).
When boarding the minibus the Octopus Card reader is just to the left of the entry doors at the top of the steps. It is not necessary to pay immediately on boarding (although most passengers do). It is acceptable to take a seat, find your Octopus Card or coins and pay as soon as possible during the journey. If paying with coins drop the exact fare in the coin box just to the left of the driver (no change is given).
The seating arrangement is four single seats on the left side of the bus and six double seats on the right hand side. Several seats are directly over the wheel arch and have very restricted leg room.
All minibuses registered on or after 1st August 2004 must be fitted with seat belts which must be worn. By July 2010 about half of the total minibus fleet were equipped with seat belts. Police occasionally mount
operations to reinforce the wearing of seat belts and during 2009 there were 1848 prosecutions. In a typical
day-long operation on 31st March 2010 police issued 189 summonses to
passengers, 34 verbal warnings and 6 fixed-penalty tickets to drivers. A further safety initiative which was introduced from August 2004 is that all new minibuses are
fitted with high-back seats.
Large display speed indicators are now mandatory inside buses in order
that passengers can monitor that the legal speed limit is not being
exceeded and the bus operators “hotline” number must be displayed inside
the vehicle. Following a number of serious accidents involving speeding
minibuses all new minibuses (both green and red) introduced from the
end of 2009 will be fitted with speed governing devices. Existing buses
must also be fitted with the devices by the end of the first quarter of
2011 and by mid-October 2009 110 minibuses operated by Express Top
Industries on three routes became the first such buses to
be retro-fitted with devices limiting speed to 87km/h. A requirement for
installation of "black-box" data recoders is also under consideration.
Interior of a green minibus. Speed indicator is visible in front of top left of windscreen and Octopus Card reader can be seen just below to the left. The coin box is located below and behind the Octopus Card reader.
Travelling to the final destination of the minibus or disembarking at an intermediate stop where other passengers are disembarking is no problem for visitors. However the majority of buses have no bells (although bells or buzzers are being introduced on some new and existing buses on certain routes). Passengers need to attract the drivers attention when wishing to disembark at the next stop and need to shout out to the driver. If sat at the back of a noisy minibus it can sometimes be difficult to be heard and for passengers without a loud voice or who may be embarrassed by shouting are advised to try and sit near the driver. Most drivers do not speak English but usually do understand English commands such as "next stop please" and it is not necessary to communicate with driver in Cantonese. Shouting just about anything will indicate to the driver you want him to stop and most drivers will usually acknowledge requests to stop with an arm motion.
If waiting to board a bus
at an intermediate stop and the bus is full the driver will usually give a hand signal to waiting passengers and not stop. However, most green minibus services are frequent waiting passengers can normally expect the next bus to be not too far behind.
Some green minibuses are fitted with call bells either above the windows (as shown above) or on the seat backs
Some green minibus services which may be useful to visitors include;
HONG KONG ISLAND
1 Central (IFC) to Peak
40 Causeway Bay to Stanley Market
52 Aberdeen to Stanley
KOWLOON
6 Tsim Sha Tsui to Hung Hom
13 Hung Hom to Kowloon Tong
NEW TERRITORIES
1A Sai Kung to Choi Hung MTR Station (Kowloon)
3 Sai Kung to Po Lo Che (for access to MacLehose trail at Ngong Ping)
7 Sai Kung to Hoi Ha
9 Sai Kung to Lady MacLehose Holiday Village (for access to Sai Kung Country Park and MacLehose Trail)
RED MINIBUS
There are 1372 (at end of 2009) red minibuses, many of which are leased to drivers on a daily basis. These are unregulated, may set their own fares and are not required to operate fixed routes or timetables. Most red minibuses do not accept fare payment by Octopus Card with fare being paid in cash on exiting the minibus. Fares can increase sharply when demand is high such as during adverse weather conditions. Red minibuses are not particularly "visitor-friendly" to use and although they do operate in some areas not served by green minibuses or franchised buses are not recommended for occasional visitors to Hong Kong. There are currently government proposals to convert red minibuses into regulated green minibuses.
Red minibuses at Shau Kei Wan