Public Transport To Be Beefed Up For DSE Exams

Road and rail traffic are expected to be noticeably busier on Friday morning as transport operators beef up services to cater to thousands of senior secondary students who will be starting their month-long Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams.

The MTR will be laying on additional trains starting between 6.15 and 6.30am, and are expected to arrange around 30 extra trips during the morning rush hour every day.

Light rail and MTR bus routes that service school areas will also be strengthened.

On the roads, KMB will resume 18 routes that had previously been suspended, and increase the frequency of 53 other major routes to meet demand.

Citybus and New World First Bus will partially resume services of 13 currently-suspended routes on the dates in which exams are being held, and strengthen services of nine routes throughout the exam period.

New Lantao Bus will also strengthen or resume five routes in Tung Chung.

A Transport Department spokesman urged all exam-takers to make sure they allow more than enough time to travel to their exam venues, and familiarise themselves with the public transportation routes ahead of time.

The DSEs – key standardised tests used to assess students for university admissions – have been delayed by around a month because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, but education officials decided that the recent drop in new cases warrants the exams to now proceed as scheduled without a further delay.

Authorities have implemented tighter health controls, including temperature checks at all venues, maintaining 1.8 metres between candidates, and doubling the number of classrooms to be used as testing centres.

In a social media post, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she believes the examinations will proceed “smoothly and safetly”, given that number of coronavirus cases here has been in the single digits for the past ten days.

She added that some government departments have asked staff to head to work later than usual to thin out the crowds, and urged companies to also adopt more flexible working hours.