Three bus companies are expected to replace 700 polluting buses, offer more fare concessions and make space for foldable bicycles after being granted new 10-year franchises by the government.

But critics say the renewal conditions do not go far enough in demanding cleaner vehicles and more concessions for elderly passengers and long-distance commuters.

The new franchises are for New World First, on Hong Kong Island, some cross-harbour routes and routes from the island to Tseung Kwan O; Long Win, on routes from the airport to the New Territories; and Citybus, for its airport and North Lantau bus network.

They will begin when the existing agreements expire in May and July next year.

“The renewal was made after a public consultation and rounds of discussion,” Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng said yesterday after the Executive Council approved the renewal. “The government’s main consideration was whether the bus companies could provide efficient services.”

The operators agreed to replace a total of 700 buses with buses meeting the latest Euro V emissions standards by 2016. Many buses in the fleets have reached the end of their expected 17-year life cycle.

Cheng said the operators had also committed to letting passengers bring foldable bicycles on board and to incorporating barrier-free access and elderly-friendly features.

They will offer an additional 60 fare concession schemes, ranging from 30 cents to HK$24.90, on top of the existing ones, including 27 new discounts for passengers interchanging between different bus routes and 27 new section fares for people travelling shorter distances on long-distance bus routes. Some Hong Kong buses charge a flat fare regardless of the distance travelled.

At present, 116 interchange discounts are available and there are section fares for 112 routes.

Cheng said the concessions would benefit an extra 8,000 passengers, especially airport workers and residents of Tung Chung, Hong Kong Island and Tseung Kwan O.

But Coalition to Monitor Public Transport and Utilities spokesman Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong said the fare concessions were inadequate.

“Obviously the government did not seize the renewal opportunity to make more demands on bus companies to improve their services,” he said. “At least they should charge the elderly and the disabled a much lower fee.”

At present, elderly passengers are charged half price except on weekends, when they pay a flat HK$2 fare. But Tsoi said they should travel free or be charged one or two dollars like their mainland counterparts.

Helen Choy Shuk-yi, general manager of the Clean Air Network, said the dirty, old buses would be replaced too slowly. “The government lacks the determination to improve roadside air,” she said.

Choy said the three companies had 751 buses that were due to be replaced by 2018, meaning the new replacement requirement would only bring forward the replacement date by two years.

Martin Turner, of the Cycling Alliance, welcomed the provision for folding bicycles. But he urged the operators to allow cyclists to take the folded bikes on board without having to put them in bags or strap them up.

Hung Wing-tat, a transport specialist at Polytechnic University, called for the new administration, which takes office in July, to review the bus fare pricing mechanism and make it more transparent.

The three companies welcomed the arrangements.

joyce.ng@scmp.com

Hong Kong, with a wide range of terrain, represents a steep challenge for two mainland-based companies hoping to develop electric buses suitable for the city

There’s still a long way to go towards eliminating Hong Kong’s air pollution but two mainland-based makers of electric buses are about to take the city further along the road towards blue skies.

BYD, backed by US investment expert Warren Buffet, and fast-growing Great Dragon – a joint venture between mainland bus maker Yixing and Global Electric Vehicles, owned by locally-listed Dah Chong Hong – have shown keen interest in developing vehicles suitable for Hong Kong.

They believe the city is ideal for developing right-hand-drive vehicles for sale in larger markets such as Britain, Australia and India.

Both companies are set to test-drive pilot vehicles designed with Hong Kong’s conditions in mind – more than 10 years after disappointing results from plans to introduce electrically powered vehicles in a city choking on its exhaust fumes.

“We are going to make a perfect bus for the Hong Kong market,” said Paul Lin for BYD, which is carrying out commissioning tests on a bus assembled at its Changsha production plant.

Raymond Lo Yuk-shun, Great Dragon’s managing director, said tailoring electric buses to a specific locale was the key to capturing the Hong Kong bus market. “You just can’t have one design to meet all the needs. You have to fine-tune each bus for special needs.”

In 2001, some 14-seat electric minibuses were tested for six months, along with minibuses running on liquified petroleum gas. The electric buses were badly outperformed by the latter. They couldn’t travel as far, were difficult to charge, spluttered going uphill and were expensive to maintain.

Two years later, an estate at Ma Wan introduced an electric single-decker bus for its shuttle service. Three of the buses were retired within two years, and the last one in 2010. The buses were said to run inefficiently and most of the time were sidelined for maintenance.

Not only must an electric bus meet legal requirements – technical and safety standards governed by road-traffic regulations – but it must suit Hong Kong’s operating environment. And it must be reliable enough to transport millions of commuters every day.

One of the biggest concerns with electric buses is their range, which is often limited by the size and efficiency of batteries and the availability of recharging facilities.

With a fully charged battery an electric bus’ usual range is between 200 and 300 kilometres, which approaches the average daily travelling range of each of the city’s three franchised bus operators – Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB), New World First Bus (NWFB) and City Bus – who operate about 5,800 of the 13,000 buses in Hong Kong.

In 2010, the vehicles of the three bus firms travelled a total of 440 million kilometres. This means that, assuming 90 per cent of the fleet was used at all times, the daily average travelling range of each of these 5,800 buses was around 230 kilometres (KMB 246 kilometres, NWFB 205 kilometres City Bus 253 kilometres).

In reality, the terrain can vary tremendously depending on the routes, making the suitability of electric buses much more complicated. For example, with a driving range of about 200 kilometres, an electric bus can handle 87 trips without recharging on KMB’s short 71B route, which runs about 2.3 kilometres within Tai Po new town. But a similar bus could only make four trips on KMB’s longest route, a 50-kilometre trip from Fanling to Wan Chai.

Driving range is just one consideration. Climbing power is the weakest link for electric buses – making Hong Kong a steep challenge.

“Forget about getting up to The Peak on an electric bus for the moment,” said Lo. “The battery can barely support the vehicle to finish the trip.

“Even if it can, the bus might need power replenishment right away at a terminus.”

A complete transition to electric buses in Hong Kong could take years. Until then, Lo predicts, the city’s streets would see a mix of power sources for buses.

“It will still take us a long time to replace these buses, perhaps 10 to 20 years, I don’t know,” he said. “But this is going to happen sooner or later, when technology advances could lower the battery weight by as much as half.”

Apart from right-hand drive, Lo said, electric buses for Hong Kong would require larger batteries and motors than those for the mainland. They’ll need greater power to handle the hills, high volume of passengers and need for air conditioning.

But a larger battery could mean fewer seats or a small luggage area, because the weight of the bus must not exceed the legal standard of 16 tonnes for a single decker – a rule that might have to be relaxed in the long term.

Where and how the battery cells are installed in a bus is another concern, because Hong Kong buses have to pass a tilt test – no flipping when tilted sideways at up to 35 degrees. Improper battery location might be dangerous.

Chinese University, located on top of a hill off Ma Liu Shui, is planning to introduce two electric buses under the city’s pilot Green Transport Fund, set up to support the testing of green and innovative technologies for public transport and goods vehicles.

The university is getting a crash course in the vehicles’ pluses and minuses.

“The ability to climb is a very crucial factor in selecting an electric bus,” said Joseph Chan Ping-tak, the university’s environmental sustainability manager. But that strong climbing power and better driving range might come at the expense of passenger capacity and even the provision of air conditioning.

“We hope we don’t have to make such a trade-off since we are not sure if the bus will be designed in a way that the windows can actually be opened,” Chan said, adding that none of the 14 diesel-run buses they have now were equipped with air conditioning. On average each bus can pack in as many as 60 students, mostly standing.

Great Dragon is now going full steam ahead to develop and build 16 electric single-decker buses early next year for trials by organisations awarded subsidies under the Hong Kong government’s Green Transport Fund.

The procurement has yet to be determined after a public tender, but Lo is confident of winning its bid. “We believe we are at least three to five years ahead of our rivals,” he said.

One likely rival is BYD, which signed a memorandum with KMB to supply an electric bus for trials that were to start late last year, but were then postponed to allow more time to develop the vehicles.

Lin denied that the early move was a public relations ploy for BYD, which has been plagued by plunging sales on the mainland for its electric cars. “It makes no sense to develop a right-hand-drive bus in a left-hand-drive market, and that’s why we think the Hong Kong market is very important to us. This is definitely not a public relations war,” Lin said.

KMB is also looking at another technology – a super-capacitor bus used at the World Expo in Shanghai. This bus doesn’t need a huge battery and has a small travelling range of only 50 kilometres when fully charged. But, by using a pantograph – an extendable mechanical link – on the bus roof, it can be recharged every time it stops at a bus stop equipped with an overhanging power cable. A 30-second charge is said to provide power to go one kilometre.

The bus, nicknamed gBus, has been tested by KMB for internal use since 2010. While the bus firm said the test was satisfactory, it plans to introduce another prototype with a longer range within this year. And the company also plans to test battery-driven buses and hybrids.

KMB would check vehicles’ power consumption over different terrain, in loading conditions and in different weather, a company spokeswoman said.

Lo said super-capacitor technology had some problems that need to be addressed. “What if there is a serious traffic jam and the buses run out of power and the air conditioning stops?” he said. “It might also need a larger charging station, and a strong voltage power cable might not be welcomed by residents living close to the bus stops.”

KMB said the gBus could have sufficient power to maintain 30 minutes of air conditioning if it was stuck in traffic.

Lo said the West Kowloon arts hub might be an ideal spot for these buses because of the flat spaces and short distances.

Electric-bus makers are not the only ones revving up for more business. Traditional bus makers are devising greener vehicles, too – including diesel-electric hybrids. Both Alexander Dennis and Volvo have rolled out these new-generation buses in Europe, especially in London, where the Olympic Games this year will boost green city transport.

These makers believe the hybrid buses, being so similar to current buses, offer plenty of advantages over electric powered vehicles.

“It is well recognised that given the limited road space and high passenger volumes, Hong Kong needs double-deck buses. This represents an even greater challenge in the context of an electric vehicle,” said a spokesman for bus maker Alexander Dennis in Hong Kong.

chifai.cheung@scmp.com