All Franchised Bus Firms Seek To Raise Fares

All five franchised bus companies in Hong Kong have applied to bump up their fares.

Kowloon Motor Bus has asked for permission to implement a 9.5 percent increase, while its sister company Long Win Bus is hoping to charge passengers 8.5 percent more, a government paper to Legco showed on Tuesday.

New World First Bus and Citybus, meanwhile, are asking for an across-the-board HK$2 rise, and New Lantao Bus wants increases of 9.8 percent.

Citybus is also seeking to raise fares by 50 percent on its airport services, and wants a 23 percent increase for the rest of its regular and overnight services for the airport and North Lantau bus network franchise. These fares have not been adjusted since 1997.

"Coupled with increases in salary and fuel expenses, most of the franchises recorded losses in the past years," transport officials say in the Legco paper. Lawmakers will discuss the proposed fare increases at a transport panel meeting on Friday.

Apart from Long Win Bus, the companies put their fares up by between 5.8 and 12 percent in 2021.

Lawmaker Bill Tang of the Federation of Trade Unions called on the government to reject what he said were "crazy applications", saying the proposed increases would hurt the city's economy.

He was especially critical of the rises sought for airport services.

"[Airport staff] have already paid a very high cost for transport, especially the Citybus passengers. At the same time, so many staff have to work overnight. They have no choice, they can only take an overnight Citybus at a very high-level bus fare," he told reporters.

"If such applications are approved, so many staff, especially the worker-level staff at the airport, will give up their job at the airport."

A spokesperson for KMB said the operator applied for the fare hike after balancing the need for a sustainable operation and people's affordability, adding that the adjustment was "reasonable".

The company attributed its profits in 2020 and 2021 to a one-off government subsidy and an earlier fare hike, saying the company would have been in the red if these two factors were not taken into consideration.