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New World First Bus

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right New World First Bus Services Limited (First Bus, or "NWFB") was established in 1998, taking over China Motor Bus's franchise on 1 September 1998 to provide bus services on Hong Kong Island together with Citybus. It is the third largest public bus operator in Hong Kong.

NWFB's Neoplan Centroliner with the standard wavy livery.
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NWFB's Neoplan Centroliner with the standard wavy livery.

Contents

Introduction

The company mainly serves Hong Kong Island, South Tseung Kwan O and the new development areas in western Kowloon. It also provides cross-harbour routes linking between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon or New Territories jointly with Kowloon Motor Bus.

The company currently possesses approximately 700 buses, and operates around 100 franchised routes with over 2,000 staff. Since 18 August 2002, the complete bus fleet is air-conditioned (except one open-top bus). All buses are equipped with the Octopus smart card payment system. Near 80% of the buses are Super Low Floor.

History

Establishment

Before NWFB started its operation, the franchised bus service in Hong Kong Island was provided by 2 companies, China Motor Bus (CMB) (franchisee since 1933) and Citybus (franchisee since 1991). In the 1990s, the service of the CMB had been commonly regarded as very poor. Hence, since 1991 the Government had started to introduce new competitors by transferring the franchise of CMB routes to other companies. Citybus then became the 2nd franchisee of Hong Kong Island bus service. Over 40 routes were transferred in 1991, 1993 and 1995. (See the history part of Citybus for more details).

However, the service of CMB did not show remarkable improvement, while CMB had been focusing more on its profit-making real estate business. Also, the negotiation between CMB and the Government on service improvements failed. Therefore on 17 February 1998, the Government finally announced the termination of the franchise of all 140 routes operated by CMB, with effect from 1 September 1998. 88 of the 140 routes were set as an open tender, 12 routes were transferred to Citybus directly, 1 cross-harbour route to Kowloon Motor Bus, and the remaining routes were cancelled.

At this time, a joint venture named New World First Holdings, the mother company of NWFB, was established to bid for the tender. The company was owned by the First Group of UK with 26% share, and [NWS Holdings Limited] (, a subsidiary of New World Development) with 74% share. In total 6 companies bid for the tender, these included:

New World First Holdings was regarded as a dark horse as it was the only bidder with no local bus operation experience. However, New World First Holdings eventually won the bid on 31 March 1998. NWFB won in the bid with various promises of new facilities, service standards, employment of CMB staff, etc.

A second-handed Leyland Olympian at Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong.
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A second-handed Leyland Olympian at Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong.

Handover from China Motor Bus

During the handover period in mid-1998, NWFB has faced a lot of difficulties in the handover arrangements, especially when CMB was not quite willing to cooperate with NWFB. At the same time, there were some chaotic problems when the old Hong Kong International Airport was moved to Chek Lap Kok on 6 July 1998. This made the Government and public a serious concern of the handover on 1 September of the same year.

Luckily, after a series of negotiations and the aid from the Government, NWFB successfully started its operation at midnight 1 September 1998. The official maiden departure of NWFB was departed at 00:15 that night on Route N8, with the first new bus in the fleet (Fleet No. 1001). But before that, NWFB has already started its operation at 00:00 in other non-overnight routes as CMB refused to operate after that time.

On the first day of operation, around 50 new buses were put into service, the remaining buses used are ex-CMB buses.

Entering China's market

In 2004, it expanded its service to Kunming in Yunnan by setting up the joint venture Kunming New World First bus with the Kunming Government. NWFB (China) is the major shareholder, holding 51% of share.

Bus fleet

Double-deck air-conditioned buses (Acquired new)

Dennis Dart SLF with Plaxton Pointer 2 body.
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Dennis Dart SLF with Plaxton Pointer 2 body.

Single-deck air-conditioned Buses (Acquired new)

Double-deck air-conditioned buses (Second-hand)

Double-deck open-top buses (Second-hand)

Bus Routes

When the Government decided to terminate China Motor Bus' franchise on its bus routes, New World First Bus acquired 88 routes. Other routes were handed over to Citybus and Kowloon Motor Bus. New World First Bus now also operates bus routes in the New Kowloon Development Area and Tseung Kwan O. On the bus stop signs, different types of routes are distinguished by different colors.

See List of bus routes in Hong Kong for the complete route list.

Hong Kong Island Routes

Air-conditioned Dennis Condor which was introduced by China Motor Bus in 1990s.
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Air-conditioned Dennis Condor which was introduced by China Motor Bus in 1990s.

On Hong Kong Island, standard routes are denoted in purple. Urban Express Routes (There are only 4 of them) are denoted in red numbers with a yellow background. Island Eastern Corridor Express Routes are denoted in green. Night Routes are denoted in yellow numbers in black background.

The numbering of bus routes follow a certain logical pattern. Bus routes beginning with 2 all terminate in the Eastern part of Hong Kong Island between Causeway Bay and Shaukeiwan. Routes beginning with 3 terminate at Chi Fu. Routes beginning with 4 and 7 terminate in southwest Hong Kong Island (Cyberport, Wah Fu, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Wong Chuk Hang). Routes beginning with 6 all terminate in or near Stanley. Routes beginning with 8 terminate in Chai Wan (including Siu Sai Wan). Routes beginning with 9 terminate on Ap Lei Chau. Triple digit routes beginning with 5 used to be fully air-conditioned routes, but now have no significant meaning. Triple digit routes beginning with 7 are Island Eastern Corridor Express Routes.

Cross Harbour Tunnel Routes

Bus routes that go through the Cross Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Tunnel are denoted in red while routes that make use of the Western Harbour Tunnel are denoted in green. Most of these routes are jointly operated with Kowloon Motor Bus, but routes 682, 682P, 694, 970, 970X and 971 are solely operated by New World First Bus. This is why anywhere those routes go in Kowloon, you are going to find NWFB bus stop signs.

All Cross Harbour Tunnel Routes have 3 digit numbers. Route numbers beginning with 1 go through the Cross Harbour Tunnel, routes beginning with 3 are morning peak hour express routes, routes beginning with 6 travel through the Eastern Harbour Tunnel. Routes beginning with 8 are shuttle buses that travel from the Shatin Racecourse. Routes beginning with 9 travel through the Western Harbour Tunnel.

Kowloon and New Territories Routes

The same color codes as those on Hong Kong Island apply for NWFB's Kowloon and New Territories Network. To distinguish NWFB routes from Kowloon Motor Bus routes, each route's number has 3 digits and all begin with 7.

Fare Scheme

All passengers on New World First Bus are required to pay the exact fare upon getting onto the bus. The bus fare can be paid by cash or by Octopus Card. Children and Senior Citizens (people aged 65 or older) pay a Concessionary Fare, which is half of the full fare.

Section Fare

Section fares apply for some of the longer routes. If a passenger get on the bus after a specified stop that is further away from the start of the route, you may pay less accordingly.

Two-way section fare

Specially for routes 14, 15 and N8P, passengers may also pay less if they get off before a specified stop as long as you use an Octopus Card.

There may be two methods to enjoy the rebate, either by cash or Octopus, solely depends on the NWFB's instruction. For the Octopus method, you have to present your Octopus Card onto the reader when you get off. Then, the corresponding rebate is added to the value of your Octopus Card. So, if a passenger takes route 15 from the Peak, and alights at Wan Chai Gap, he will only pay $6.80 instead of the full fare of $9.40 using his Octopus Card. For the cash method, one can simply pay the sectional fare into the farebox. The Octopus method is now replacing the cash method.

Same Day Return

In early 2005, Citybus and New World First Bus jointly introduced the Same Day Return option of their solely operated franchised Cross Harbour Routes with bus fares exceeding $15 and for NWFB's Kowloon and New Territories Network.

The following groups of routes have the Same Day Return option available to Octopus Card users:

To take advantage of the Same Day Return for the routes above, the passenger should first press the Green "Return Pass" button on the Octopus Reader, wait until "Return Pass" is displayed on the screen of the reader before presenting his Octopus Card. Then, the fare for both journeys will be deducted from the Octopus Card with a double beep sound. When the passenger presents his Octopus Card on the routes that belong to the same route group in the return journey, no more money will be deducted from the Octopus Card.

The Same Day Return option provides up to a 15% discount in bus fares. For example, the single journey fare for route 792M is $6.50, but the price of the Return Pass is $11.00. So, the commuter will save $2, or 15.3% of the combined fare of 2 rides.

Rival operators

See also

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[Special]

[[zh-yue:新世界第一巴士]]

 

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