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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a standup briefing by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, on the implementation of the new fare adjustment arrangement today (January 10):
Reporter: Is this the best deal already....?
Dr Liao: This is part of the deal with regard to the new franchise that we are granting to the three bus companies. It has gone through a long period of negotiation and also the consultation that had just taken place in two months' time. I believe this is the best deal we can achieve for the moment.
Reporter: What is the final deal?
Dr Liao: The franchise itself involves the use of a fare adjustment mechanism which is formula-related plus a basket of factors. With that we are able to provide the more transparent and objective parameters for fare adjustment and also we can be more proactive in terms of the situation, that is the economic downturn, we can ask for a reduction of fare instead of in the past when we can only wait for the companies to apply for an increase. Secondly, the passenger fund which we require the companies to share excess profit with the passenger (the triggering point) is lowered from 13% to 9.7 %, which is a 25% improvement.
Finally, about the fare reduction, as we have studied and the community has responded it is the long-distance travellers that really need more concessions. So we have concentrated our efforts in terms of reduction of fare. We have found out that the pre-paid day return has not been very popular and we have discussed it with the bus companies. Now the package is for those who pay $15 or above, they would get 10% reduction on day return. For those who pay $10 to $14.9, they would get a 5% discount on the day return. For those who pay below $10, we have now got 306 routes which are 70% of the $10 and below routes for bus-bus interchange, they get discount which varies from a few percent to double digit percentage reduction. These will persist for three years until we have a review on both the return rate and the fare reduction scheme that we have now.
For elderly people, a $2 fare is a gesture of showing respect for the elderly and this is a tradition of Hong Kong. This will start on the Chinese New Year Eve which is January 28. And it will go through the holidays. As for the others, like the day return fare reduction on routes above $15, it will start on February 19.
Reporter: If the legislators are still not satisfied and ask for further reduction ...?
Dr Liao: I thought at the motion debate, it was put very clearly to us that, although one of the parties required the Government to have a 10% reduction, in the debate they actually said they understood that it was not possible to have across-the-board strict 10% deduction. And they agreed that as long as we have done our best to try and get the most out of the companies, they would be satisfied. So I hope they would live up with their promise.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion)
Ends/Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:53
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