Merged Citybus And NWFB To Look To Northern NT

The chief operating officer of Citybus says it's the 'right time' and 'necessary' for a merger between his company and New World First Bus, which was given the go-ahead on Tuesday by Exco.

Speaking on RTHK's 'Hong Kong Today' programme, Richard Hall said, while the pandemic and new train services had affected bus patronage, the company would now focus on developing new routes into the northern New Territories.

"The railways started to develop late nineties-early 2000s. Additional services opening this year; the East Rail Line, you know they have impacted our business heavily. And actually, historically, we've probably not evolved at the level we should have done. And we're now doing that and we're meeting those challenges from those new rail services," he said.

"Expanding our core operating base from Hong Kong island, more into the new development areas of the New Territories."

In last year's Policy Address, the then Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced ambitious plans to develop the northern New Territories, as a Northern Metropolis, that would house up to 2.5 million people and offer 650 000 jobs, including 150,000 in the IT sector.

Hall also played down concerns about potential redundancies, saying they were actually short of staff.

"We're absolutely not going to have future lay-offs. Actually, the biggest challenge the whole franchise bus industry in Hong Kong faces today is recruitment," he said. "There's a legacy issue of struggling to recruit enough bus captains across Hong Kong - that's not just ourselves, all the franchised bus operators."

At present, both Citybus and New World First Bus are owned by the same company Bravo Transport, although they operate separately. The newly-merged company, which will be known as Citybus Limited, will begin its new 10-year franchise in July 2023.

The government on Tuesday said bus fares on existing routes would not be affected. However, Hall said that, although there would be no immediate fare rises on the award of the franchise, wage inflation and living costs were going up and fares needed to be addressed in line with that.