MINIBUSES (PLB’S)
There are 4350 (the maximum allowed under government restrictions) public light buses serving Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. Each is licensed to carry a maximum of 16 passengers. In October 2008 one operator with a fleet of over 300 minibuses won permission to seek a judicial review on the 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. 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. Responding to questions in the Legislative Council in May 2008 the Government Secretary for Transport and Housing confirmed there are no plans to relax the existing limit on passenger numbers in these vehicles as passenger demand for services is expected to remain stable for the forseeable future.
There are two types of public light bus and these are distinguished by colour of the roof;
RED MINIBUS
There are approx 1600 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, hence are not particularly “tourist friendly” although they do serve some areas not served by either franchised buses or green minibuses. Many red minibuses do not accept fare payment by Octopus Card. There are currently government proposals to convert red minibuses into regulated green minibuses.
GREEN MINIBUS
There are approx 2800 green minibuses all of which are regulated by the Transport Department. They operate on 352 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;
Some services which visitors may find useful include;
HONG KONG ISLAND
1 Central (IFC) to Peak
2 Central (IFC) to Old Peak Road
40 Causeway Bay to Stanley
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 (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)
Green Minibuses at Lung Wui Road, Central
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 as you board (although most passengers do). It is acceptable to take your 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.
Seat belts are progressively being fitted to all minibuses and where fitted these must be worn. Occasionally police posing as passengers will board buses to ensure the law is being complied with and passengers not wearing belts can be subject to fines. 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. A further safety initiative is that new buses are fitted with high-back seats.
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 buses). You have to attract the drivers attention to let him know you want to disembark at the next stop and need to shout out to the driver. If you’re sat at the back of a noisy minibus it can be difficult to make yourself heard so if you haven’t got a loud voice or are embarrassed by shouting out try and sit near the driver. Most drivers do not speak English but don’t worry if you don’t speak Cantonese as shouting just about anything (he’ll almost certainly understand “next stop please”) will indicate to the driver you want him to stop and and he’ll acknowledge you with an arm motion. Some drivers do check in their mirrors before stops to see whether anyone is gesturing for him to stop.
If you’re waiting to board a bus at an intermediate stop and the bus is full the driver will signal to you and it won’t stop. You shouldn’t have to wait long for the next bus though, most minibus route services are very frequent.
Inside the Green Minibus