Kowloon Motor Bus

The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), a Transport International Holdings Limited company, is the largest of the three franchised bus operators in the urban area of Hong Kong, and one of the largest privately-owned public bus operators in the world. For its franchised service in Hong Kong, KMB operates a fleet consisting of about 4,300 buses on 420 routes and employs a staff of over 13,000.

History

KMB was founded on 13 April 1933 as a result of the reformation of public transport by the then-British colonial government of Hong Kong. Before the reformation, there were several independent bus operators working on both sides of the Victoria Harbour.

The KMB franchise allowed for the operation of public omnibus service on the Kowloon side, as well as the New Territories. By 11 June 1933, KMB had a fleet of 106 single deck buses.

The founding members of KMB were:

Sir Tang Shiu-kin (鄧肇堅)
William Louey Sui Tak (雷瑞德)
Lui Leung (雷亮)
Tam Woon Tong (譚煥堂)
Lam Ming Fan (林明勳)

By 1940, KMB had 140 single-deckers operating on 17 routes. After World War II, only a handful of buses survived, and therefore some trucks (lorries) were converted to buses.

By the late 1940s, KMB ridership increased with the huge influx of immigration after the war. In 1949, KMB bought 20 Daimler double-deckers from England, becoming the first operator to operate double-deckers in Hong Kong.

Following the opening of the Cross Harbour Tunnel in 1972, a number of cross harbour routes was jointly operated by KMB with China Motor Bus, the sole bus operator on Hong Kong Island. With the tunnels, KMB service expanded from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. At the same time, KMB experimented with buses operating without fare collector (also referred to as One Man Operated).

In 1975, the first air-conditioned bus in Hong Kong was put into service by KMB. Following the testing of the double-decked air-conditioned bus in early 1980s (Victory and Jubilant), KMB became the world's first air-conditioned double-decker operator. Today 90 per cent of KMB bus fleet is air-conditioned.

In 1996, KMB formed a subsidiary named Long Win Bus Company on Lantau Link with service to the new Hong Kong International Airport and Tung Chung.

Starting from 1998, KMB extended her network into mainland China when a co-operative joint venture - Dalian Hong Kong Macau Company Limited, started its operation.

Innovations

KMB is the first franchised bus company in Hong Kong that achieved the following:

Air-conditioning franchised bus service (early 1975)
First super-low-floor (SLF) double deckers in the world (1997)
ISO 'Quality Systems' throughout its entire organisation (1999)
ISO 9001:2000 certification (2001)

Fare

A passenger pays fare by either cash (no change given) or an Octopus card, a smart card fare collection system used in Hong Kong. Discounts apply for Octopus users on specified interchange combinations. Generally fare decreases as the passenger boards the bus at stops closer to the end of the route.

Fleet

In 2005, Kowloon Motor Bus has a fleet of over 4,300 buses with over 80% of the fleet being double-deckers and of that, around 90% of the double-deck fleet is air-conditioned:

The KMB Fleet is allocated and spread across four major depots across Kowloon and the New Territories and is identified by letter (either K, L, S or U). These letters are placed on the bottom left of the driver's windscreen, although some of the buses in the fleet still have the letter placed under the windscreen.

K: Formerly Kwun Tong Depot, Currently Kowloon Bay Depot
L: Lai Chi Kok Depot
S: Sha Tin Depot
U: Formerly Un Long(Yuen Long) Depot, currently Tuen Mun Depot

For the fleet numbering system, see Kowloon Motor Bus Fleet Numbering.

For more information about the bus fleet, see Kowloon Motor Bus Fleet.

Routes

Most of KMB routes are mainly concentrated on Kowloon and the New Territories, its major service area. It also operates cross-harbour tunnel routes with other Hong Kong bus operators, New World First Bus and Citybus.

The route numbers are grouped under a logical order, with the hundreds digit being the type of the route, the tens digit being the area coverage of the route, and the ones being the specific route. There are no zeros leading. English characters are added in front of or behind the route number to differentiate routes of different natures such as overnight or express, or to differentiate routes of similar routing yet with different destinations.

The route number system is quite similar to routes on the Hong Kong Island side of the harbour, yet the numbers on the two sides are non-exclusive. Another set of numbering is used by the New Lantao Bus, which makes there are three Bus Route 1 in Hong Kong (and more if you include the minibuses).

On some cross-harbour routes, buses (typically the older buses) will display a red background on the route information sign so that passengers will know right away that the bus is serving cross-harbour route.

For bus stop signs, route numbers are generally shown in black font with white background. Special colours will be used for specific categories of routes, which include:

White font with red background: Cross-Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Crossing Routes
White font with green background: Western Harbour Crossing Routes
White font with black background: Overnight Routes

KMB is the sole operator of most of its routes, but some cross-harbour routes are co-operated with either Citybus or New World First Bus. No new co-operated routes have been introduced since and there are no plans for any more.

KMB currently operates over 400 routes in Hong Kong, see list of bus routes in Hong Kong for details.

Rivals

New World First Bus and Citybus (Hong Kong) - owned by NWS Transport Services Limited.
China Motor Bus - lost franchise to New World First Bus in 1998

External links

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