First public bus service review report released

The report on the first review of the public bus service was announced by the Transport Bureau yesterday. Two of the current operators – Transmac and TCM – and the bankrupted Reolian, scored 69.54, 67.33 and 62.4 respectively.
The three operators all scored over 80 in 15 out of the 29 indexes, which included drivers’ driving skills, hygiene of the vehicle, safety facilities and so on. However, the operators scored lower than 60 in four indexes – including the time interval between buses.
The bureau says that “certain operator(s)” also scored under 60 in terms of “accidents” and “notification on change of routes,” but it did not reveal the name(s) of operator(s).
The first bus service review was conducted last year for the period from July to December.
The authority also invited nearly 3,000 of the public to rate the three operators, and the results became one part of the overall review outcome. The survey included residents’ opinions on the service level of the driver, environment of vehicles, and length of time that they spent waiting for a bus. It turned out that TCM scored the highest with 69.16, followed by Transmac, 68.65. Reolian achieved 67.45.
The bureau singled out that, in the public survey, the portion of passengers that were unsatisfied about the waiting time outweighed that of the other two issues.
The Transport Bureau said that they would follow up the low-scoring items as a priority. The authority has requested that the two existing operators submit a report regarding measures to optimize their services.
The second round of reviews were conducted from January to June this year. The third round starts in July.   GY