Citybus (Hong Kong)
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Citybus (Chinese: 城巴) is one of the three major bus operators in Hong Kong. It provides both franchised and non-franchised bus service. The franchised route network mainly serves Hong Kong Island, the cross-Harbour service between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon/New Territories, and also the North Lantau (Tung Chung and Hong Kong Disneyland) as well as the Hong Kong International Airport. The non-franchised routes mainly serve for City One Shatin. It also provides bus rental services and staff bus services for some large companies such as TVB.
The company provided cross-border service (Hong Kong <> China) since 1984 with the introduction of Leyland Olympians. In 2001, Citybus discontinued the services due to keen competitions.
The livery of Citybus's buses is composed of yellow, red and blue colours.
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[edit] History
In 1979, Citybus began its operation in Hong Kong with one double deck bus (Volvo B55), providing shuttle service for the Hong Kong United Dockyard in Hung Hom. It later expanded into operating a residential bus route between City One, Shatin and Kowloon Tong MTR station.
In 1984, Citybus began a cross-boundary coach service between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Later in 1985, Citybus had introduced the first batch of air-conditioned double-deck coaches. Since then, the company kept expanding its fleet of air-conditioned buses. This had also been the remarkable start of the air-conditioned double-deck bus history in Hong Kong.
In 1991, the Hong Kong Government awarded Citybus its first franchised route 12A (Admiralty Tamar St. <> Macdonnel Rd.) on Hong Kong Island, which was originally operated by China Motor Bus and then cancelled in 1980s. It marked Citybus the era of being a franchised bus company serving Hong Kong Island routes. Also in 1991, several thousend miles away in London, Citybus operated a new company called Capital Citybus with an all-yellow livery for the routes in North and East London and a red and yellow livery for central London. This was sold to FirstGroup in 1998 and now trades as First Capital. In 1993, Citybus took over 28 franchised routes from China Motor Bus after winning a competitive tender. Further 14 franchised routes was awarded to the company in 1995 without tendering, with the fleet expanded to over 500 buses. During these years Citybus expanded its market of Hong Kong Island to capture the CMB's original business, making nearly all CMB routes poor in profits. The areas of Hong Kong Island, especially Central, Wanchai and Causeway Bay, more and more CMB passengers chose Citybus rather than CMB.
In 1996, with the Tsing Ma Bridge coming into operation and commencement of settlement in the Tung Chung new town, Citybus won another tender to operate 13 new franchised routes serving Tung Chung and the new Hong Kong International Airport. The airport bus service, started in 1998, is called Cityflyer which is part of Citybus and is solely used for Airport express routes to the city. The Cityflyer service is composed of a series of 4 routes: A11, A12, A21 and A22, with A10 being added to the mix in 2005. Citybus also operates various Overnight Airport routes and Airport Shuttle Routes.
In 1998, following the expiry of the franchise of the China Motor Bus, a further 12 routes were transferred to Citybus. Citybus's fleet was up to 1,100 buses. The remaining routes of China Motor Bus were transferred to a new operator New World First Bus.
Its business was expanded into mainland China with a joint venture operation in Beijing. It was not only Beijing's first joint venture bus operation, but it also marked the introduction of air-conditioned buses for the first time in the capital city. Following the success of this route, a second urban express coach route was introduced in Beijing. However, the services in Beijing was terminated shortly after the stocks owned by Citybus was sold to another Hong Kong company in June 2004. Citybus had also once operated a route (route 658) in Tianjin. This service is now operated by another company.
In 1999, Citybus was acquired by Stagecoach Group of United Kingdom.
In 2001, Citybus discontinued the China <> Hong Kong service.
The company was acquired by Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, the parent company of the major rival operator New World First Bus, in June 2003. And after a series of restructuring, Citybus is now a subsidiary of NWS Transport Services Limited, which is also the parent company of New World First Bus and New World First Ferry. NWS Transport has since re-dominated the franchised bus serivces in Hong Kong Island.
[edit] Other Operators
Citybus's rivals include:
- Kowloon Motor Bus
- New World First Bus
- China Motor Bus - company lost franchise to First Bus in 1998
[edit] Fleet
[edit] Current
- AEC Routemaster
- Leyland Olympian
- Volvo Olympian
- Volvo B6LE
- MAN 24.350
- MAN NL262
- Dennis Dragon
- Dennis Dart
- Dennis Dragon trolleybus conversion (Kummler and Matter trolleys poles)
- Dennis Trident
- Scania K94UB
[edit] Historical
- Volvo Ailsa B55
- Daimler/Leyland Fleetline
- Bristol Lodekka
- Dennis Dominator
- Leyland Victory Mk2
- Leyland Atlantean
- Volvo B6
- Dennis Dart SLF
- Volvo B10M
- Volvo B12
