Minutes of the 7th Meeting ofTraffic and Transport Committee (2016-17)

Central and Western District Council

Date : 23 February 2017 (Thursday)

Time : 2:30 pm

Venue : Conference Room14/F, Harbour Building38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong

Present:ChairmanMr CHAN Choi-hi, MH*

Vice ChairmanMr CHAN Ho-lim, Joseph (5:55 pm – 6:29 pm)

MembersMr CHAN Chit-kwai, BBS, JP (2:30 pm – 6:13 pm)Mr CHAN Hok-fung, MH*Ms CHENG Lai-king*Mr CHEUNG Kwok-kwan, JP (2:46 pm – 2:57 pm)Mr HUI Chi-fung (3:33 pm – 5:29 pm)Mr KAM Nai-wai, MH*Mr LEE Chi-hang, Sidney, MH (2:33 pm – 5:52 pm)Mr NG Siu-hong (2:30 pm – 6:40 pm)Ms SIU Ka-yi (2:30 pm – 6:26 pm)Mr YEUNG Hoi-wing*Mr YEUNG Hok-ming (2:30 pm – 7:00 pm)Mr YIP Wing-shing, BBS, MH, JP*

Co-opted MembersMr LEUNG King-yue, Alex*Mr YIP Kam-lung, Sam*Miss NG Hoi-yan, Bonnie (2:30 pm – 6:10 pm)

Remarks: * Members that attended the whole meeting ( ) The time of attendance of the Member

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GuestsItem 5Ms KUNG Wai-han Engineer 7/Central Wanchai Bypass, Highways

DepartmentMr WONG Chun-kin Senior Engineer 1/Central Wanchai Bypass,

Highways DepartmentMr YU Hing-wai Senior Resident Engineer, AECOM Asia Company

Limited

Item 6Mr FU Ting-hong, Derek Senior Transport Officer/Bus/Hong Kong 1,

Transport DepartmentMr Simon WONG Planning and Scheduling Manager, Citybus

Limited/New World First Bus Services LimitedMr Calvin WONG Senior Planning Officer, Citybus Limited/New

World First Bus Services LimitedMr Kevin LI Public Affairs Manager, Citybus Limited/New

World First Bus Services LimitedMr Roger MA Operations Manager, New World First Bus

Services LimitedMr Philip WONG Operations Manager (Dept. One), Citybus LimitedMs Peggy WONG Assistant Manager, Planning & Development,

Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) LimitedMr LEUNG Wang-cheong Assistant Manager, Operations, Kowloon Motor

Bus Company (1933) Limited

Item 7Mr CHAN Chi-ming Senior Engineer/Special Duty,

Transport DepartmentMr LEE Sai-hang Engineer/Special Duty 1, Transport DepartmentMr TSANG Hin-man Senior Engineer/Covered Walkway 2, Highways

Department

Item 8Ms MAK Ka-ki, Maggie Senior Engineer/Central and Western,

Transport DepartmentMs LOU Ching-yee, Esther Engineer/Central and Western 1,

Transport Department

Item 9Miss AU Wing-yan, Christine Principal Assistant Secretary (Harbour),

Development BureauMr CHU Ho, Larry Assistant Secretary (Harbour)1, Development

BureauMr MOK Ying-kit, Peter Project Manager (Harbour), Development BureauMr FUNG Ka-ho, Carlos Engineer (Harbour), Development Bureau

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Mr John P. L. WONG Chau Lam Architects and AssociatesMr Thompson T S LAI Wong & Cheng Consulting Engineers LimitedMr Beluga CHUNG Mannings (Asia) Consultants LimitedMr Simon C. P. LING P & T (M & E) Ltd.

Item 10Ms CHO Man-yee, Gennifer Principal Technical Officer (Traffic)/Southern and

Peak, Transport DepartmentMr WAN Wai-keung Officer-in-Charge, District Traffic Team (Central

District), Hong Kong Police Force

Item 11Mr LEUNG Kwok-man, Lautrec Senior Transport Officer/Central and Western,

Transport DepartmentMr Kevin LI Public Affairs Manager, Citybus Limited/New

World First Bus Services LimitedMr Roger MA Operations Manager, New World First Bus

Services Limited

Item 12Mr LO Man-chun Senior Inspector of Police (Road Management

Office) (Enforcement and Control Division)(Traffic HK Island), Hong Kong Police Force

Ms WONG Wun-chi, Gi Gi Road Safety Officer (Investigation and Support Division)(Traffic HK Island), Hong Kong Police Force

Mr YONG Kwok-chung Sergeant, Road Safety Team, Hong Kong Police Force

Ms CHEUNG Oi-wah Sergeant, Road Safety Team, Hong Kong Police Force

Mr WAN Wai-keung Officer-in-Charge, District Traffic Team (Central District), Hong Kong Police Force

Ms LOU Ching-yee, Esther Engineer/Central and Western 1,Transport Department

Mr KAM Yuet-wang District Engineer/Central, Highways DepartmentMr HUI Kar-nung Chief Health Inspector 1, Food and Environmental

Hygiene Department

Item 13Mr LEUNG Kwok-man, Lautrec Senior Transport Officer/Central and Western,

Transport DepartmentMr LEUNG Yin-man Police Community Relation Officer (Central

District), Hong Kong Police ForceMr WAN Wai-keung Officer-in-Charge, District Traffic Team

(Central District), Hong Kong Police ForceMr CHAN Derek Armstrong Division Commander (Hong Kong Central), Fire

Services DepartmentMr LEUNG Ming-ho Station Commander, Central Fire Station, Fire

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Services DepartmentMr LEE Yue-wah, Ellis Senior Engineer/Railways 4, Electrical and

Mechanical Services DepartmentMr Winson TSE Operations Manager - Island Line and Tseung

Kwan O Line, MTR Corporation LimitedMs Dorothy LAU Assistant Public Relations Manager – External

Affairs, MTR Corporation LimitedIn Attendance:

Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, Susanne, JP District Officer (Central and Western)Ms WONG Suet-yi, Penny Assistant District Officer (Central and Western)Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Grace Senior Executive Officer (District Council),

Central and Western District OfficeMiss YU Yan-yan, Rosanna Senior Executive Officer (District Management),

Central and Western District OfficeMr LEUNG Kwok-man, Lautrec Senior Transport Officer/Central and Western,

Transport DepartmentMs LOU Ching-yee, Esther Engineer/Central and Western 1,

Transport DepartmentMr YIP Wang-yu Engineer/Central and Western 3,

Transport DepartmentMs CHO Man-yee, Gennifer Principal Technical Officer (Traffic)/Southern and

Peak, Transport DepartmentMr KAM Yuet-wang District Engineer/Central, Highways DepartmentMr WAN Wai-keung Officer-in-Charge, District Traffic Team (Central

District), Hong Kong Police ForceMs NG May-mey District Operations Officer (Western District),

Hong Kong Police ForceMr KWONG Sze-yeung Officer-in-Charge, District Traffic Team

(Western District), Hong Kong Police Force

SecretaryMiss HUANG Hsiao-ching, Yuki Executive Officer (District Council) 2,

Central and Western District Office

Absent with Apologies:Miss LO Yee-hangMr NG Wing-yan, MHMr SIO Chan-in, DevinMs LEE Lai-ming District Operations Officer (Central District),

Hong Kong Police ForceMr NG Tit-ho, Leo Engineer/Central and Western 2,

Transport Department

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Opening Remarks

The Chairman welcomed all Members and representatives from government departments to the 7th meeting of the Traffic and Transport Committee (TTC) (2016-2017).

Item 1 : Adoption of the A genda

2. The Committee adopted the agenda for the meeting.

Item 2: Confirmation of the Minutes of the 6th TTC Meeting on 10 November 2016

3. The Committee confirmed the minutes of the 6th TTC meeting.

Item 3: Action Checklists on Matters Arising from the Last Meeting(C&W TTC Paper No. 15 /201 7 ) (2:36 pm)

4. The Committee noted the paper.

Item 4 : Chairman’s R eport (2:37 pm)

5. The Chairman said that for the minor traffic improvement projects and their schedules (as of end of January this year), the Secretariat had distributed the report to Members for perusal before the meeting and had not received any comments from Members.

6. The Chairman pointed out that the Committee had conducted site visit to the proposed sites for provision of cover for walkway and the areas around Bridges Street, Second Street and Third Street one after another.

Item 5: Standing Item (i) - Central-Wan Chai Bypass and Island Eastern Corri-dor Link – Report on the Progress of the Central Interchange Project

(C&W TTC Paper No. 4/2017)(2:37 pm – 2:40 pm)

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7. Ms KUNG Wai-han , Engineer 7/Central Wanchai Bypass of the Highways Depart-ment (HyD), reported on the progress of the Central Interchange project in the past six months, including the construction of at-grade roads connecting to the west tunnel portal in areas around Man Kwong Street, Man Chiu Street and Finance Street, and provision of sign gantries; as well as the modification of sign gantries at Connaught Road Central Flyover (eastbound). The HyD would continue the construction of the remaining at-grade roads connecting to the west tunnel portal in areas around Man Kwong Street, Man Chiu Street and Finance Street in the coming six months. She said that there would be no new major temporary traffic diversion for the project in the coming year, and that the existing temporary traffic arrangement would be progressively handed over to the Tunnel Commissioning Contract.

8. She continued that the tunnel project in Central of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass project had been handed over to the last contract called “Tunnel Commissioning Con-tract” for implementation of the remaining works. As anticipated at this stage, the by-pass would be open between the end of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.

9. The Chairman asked whether the existing progress of the works was behind sched-ule and whether the works could be completed on time.

10. Mr WONG Chun-kin , Senior Engineer 1/Central Wanchai Bypass of the HyD, replied that the bypass would be open between the end of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019 as anticipated. All the remaining works were targeted to meet this goal.

11. Members had no further questions. The C hairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 6: Bus Route Planning Programme 2017-2018 of Central & Western District(C&W TTC Paper No. 5/2017)(2:40 pm - 4:06 pm)

12. Mr FU Ting-hong , Senior Transport Officer/Bus/Hong Kong 1 of the Transport Department (TD), said that the TD would discuss with bus companies on optimisation of bus service every year to alleviate road congestion and facilitate good utilisation of resources by bus companies.

13. Mr FU Ting-hong of the TD briefed on the routes concerned as follows:

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B us r oute plan ning for b us routes mainly operating via the Central and Western (C&W) District

a. New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) Route Number (Route) 23X: To provide bus service for the Mid-Levels residents to reach Hong Kong Is-land East directly. NWFB would provide two additional special departures from Pokfield Road to Sai Wan Ho at 8 am and 8:20 am. The bus fare for the whole journey was $9, and the saved journey time was expected to be 10 min-utes.

b. NWFB Route 18X: To re-route some Shau Kei Wan bound trips via Des Voeux Road Central and King’s Road without operating via Island Eastern Corridor.

c. NWFB Route 18: To cancel 3 afternoon trips of Route 18 from Sheung Wan to North Point, and the released vehicles would be deployed to operate Route 18X.

d. Citybus Limited (CTB) Route 40: To change to provide one-way service from Wah Fu (North) to Wan Chai (Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre) and without operating via Chi Fu Road.

e. CTB Route 40M: To re-route the Wah Fu (North) bound trip to depart from Wan Chai North Temporary Public Transport Interchange, travelling via Hen-nessy Road and Queensway, and heading to Caine Road from Cotton Tree Drive without passing the congested Queen’s Road Central, D’Aguilar Street and Lyndhurst Terrace in Central. To extend the last departure to 9 pm in re-sponse to views raised by Members last year.

f. NWFB Route H1: Re-routing of the departure from the Central Piers at 10:30 am was proposed. The routing would not operate via Hollywood Road, but be re-routed via Wan Chai Market, Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market and the flower mar-ket in Mong Kok. It would also be re-numbered as Route H1A. Re-routing was also proposed for departures from Central Piers from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm to divert via Nathan Road, which would be re-numbered as Route H2. Cancel-lation was proposed for the night scene from the Central Piers at 5 pm.

g. NWFB Route 3A: Owing to the existing low patronage of Route 3A, it was proposed to cancel the departures for Central at 7:45 am and 3:15 pm for bet-ter utilisation of resource.

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h. CTB/KMB Route 103P: As the occupancy rate of each trip was less than 30%, it was proposed to cancel the special departure in the morning peak hours.

B us routes operating via C&W District

a. Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB)/NWFB Route 980A: Two additional special departures to Wan Chai during morning peak hours were proposed.

b. KMB/NWFB Route 104: Re-routing of Route 104 was proposed by diverting the route away from Mong Kok Road to passing Lai Chi Kok Road and Prince Edward Road West to avoid operating via the busiest road sections in Mong Kok.

c. CTB Route 930/930X: Frequency improvement was proposed by providing two additional departures to facilitate the public travelling to Hong Kong Is-land for work.

d. CTB Route 969B: Frequency improvement in the morning and afternoon peak hours were proposed.

e. CTB Route E11S: Re-routing was proposed on Tung Chung Road.

f. CTB Route 969C: It was proposed to provide new routing in the morning peak hours and extend the service to cover the road sections in Tin Shui Wai in the evening peak hours.

g. Routes 619, 641, 930A, 930X, 962S and NA11: Bus companies would imple-ment frequency improvement according to the guidelines when the passenger volume of individual routes had met the respective criteria set out therein.

14. The main points of Members’ comments on the aforesaid routes were as follows:

a. Mr CHAN Chit-kwai expressed support for the proposed additional departures of Route 23X. He proposed to cancel only one frequency of Route 103P by retaining the one having a higher patronage. He continued to ask whether it would help increase the patronage by changing one departure of Route 103P to 8:20 am.

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b. Mr CHAN Hok-fung said that the Bus Route Planning Programme (BRPP) for Central & Western District 2017-2018 did not cover the provision of overnight bus services for which the Committee had all along been fighting for. He requested the TD to squarely face the problem of lacking overnight bus services in Western District. He hoped that the TD would consider pro-viding bus service from Western District to Grantham Hospital to facilitate the elderly and patients having undergone eye surgeries in the eye centre at Grantham Hospital. He did not agree to the re-routing of Route 18X to divert via Des Voeux Road Central because the journey time would become longer and thus weaken the competitiveness of this route. He also objected to the fre-quency reduction of Route 3A because the nature of this route was to provide bus service for residents in remote areas. Therefore frequency reduction of Route 3A should not be implemented on grounds of low patronage. At present, Mount Davis Road was part of the routing of green minibus (GMB) Route 54. However, GMBs operating this route were often filled to capacity when arriving at Queen Mary Hospital (QMH). He opined that frequency re-duction of Route 3A would increase the burden of GMB Route 54 the service level of which was not comparable to that of bus Route 3A as well. He also asked whether the frequency of Route 101X could be increased in the morn-ing. He continued that as the concessionary scheme after crossing the harbour was implemented only from Centre Street, the synergy of cross-harbour con-cessions could not be functioned effectively. He hoped that the TD would consider aligning the bus fare of all cross-harbour routes after crossing the har-bour to that of bus routes operating on Hong Kong Island with similar rout-ings.

c. Mr KAM Nai-wai supported the additional provision of Route 23X. He pro-posed to add 3 departures from 8 am at a frequency of 15 minutes. He said the bus fare of Route 23X was a bit high, worrying that high charges would make the route less competitive. He also asked whether additional bus stops of Route 18/18X could be provided in Sheung Wan to facilitate access to Eastern District by residents in Sheung Wan.

d. Ms CHENG Lai-king agreed to the proposed addition of Route 23X, and sug-gested that the service hours should be from 8 am to 9:30 am. She thought that the bus fare of Route 23X was too expensive, and recommended addi-tional return trips departing from Eastern District to C&W District be provided to facilitate the journey of residents getting off work. She opposed the last de-parture of Route 40/40M at 9 pm and proposed to extend the departure time to 10 pm. As the routing of Route 40 would not operate via D’Aguilar Street anymore, she hoped that the TD would provide interchange concessions to passengers travelling by Routes 12, 12M and 13 and interchanging for Route

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40 on Caine Road.

e. Ms SIU Ka-yi strongly requested to maintain the existing service of Route 40. She asked how many passengers would be affected if Route 40 would not route via Lyndhurst Terrace and D’Aguilar Street, and how much more wait-ing time would be required for passengers waiting in D’Aguilar Street and Lyndhurst Terrace. She strongly objected to the frequency reduction of Route 103P. She asked how much more waiting time would be required after reduc-ing the frequency of Route 103P. She proposed to advance the departure at 8:05 am to 7:50 am to facilitate students. She remarked that residents in the Mid-Levels were not benefited from the opening of MTR Sai Ying Pun Sta-tion, but many bus routes plying between the Mid-Levels and other areas were cancelled or reduced in frequency after opening of the said station.

f. Mr YEUNG Hoi-wing was opposed to the proposed re-routing of Route 18X because it would not be an express route anymore and would become less competitive after diversion. He also pointed out that although the Committee had been striving for alignment of bus fare of cross-harbour routes after cross-ing the harbor to that of bus routes on the island for a long time, the proposed fare alignment would start from the bus stop in Centre Street only. He was disappointed about that. He hoped that alignment of bus fare of cross-harbour routes would be implemented so as to provide more travelling options to pas-sengers. He said that many bus routes for which the Committee had all along been fighting for were not covered under the BRPP, including overnight bus services in Western District, bus routes plying between Kennedy Town and Southern District, as well as bus service departing from Western District to Grantham Hospital.

g. Mr YEUNG Hok-ming said that he did not want to see Route 18X to become a slow route. He hoped that the bus fare of the cross-harbour routes would be reduced from the bus stops in Wan Chai by aligning to that of bus routes oper-ating similar routing on Hong Kong Island. He proposed to provide additional departure of Route 930A from Sai Ying Pun to the areas around Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung in the morning peak hours, and return trips in afternoon peak hours. He also hoped that the bus companies would provide overnight bus ser-vices to residents in Western District as soon as possible.

h. Mr NG Siu-hong supported the proposed addition of Route 23X. He hoped that the service hours of the route could be extended to 10 am, and return trips could be provided in the afternoon peak hours. As passengers on Caine Road also had similar demand, he hoped that an additional bus route would be pro-vided from Caine Road to Hong Kong Island East. He objected to frequency

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reduction of Routes 40 and 40M. He said that as the residents in the Mid-Lev-els could not be benefited from the commissioning of the MTR Sai Ying Pun Station because of the long distance between the two locations. For this rea-son, he hoped that the bus company and TD would not reduce the frequency of these routes. He continued to ask why the bus companies did not disclose the bus-related data so that the Committee and public could monitor the bus ser-vice and make proposal about service improvement to the bus companies more appropriately.

i. Mr LEUNG King-yue pointed out that the eastbound bus routes at Connaught Road Central were always overloaded in the morning peak hours. He sug-gested that the TD should consider utilising the interchange capacity of the bus stops at the Western Harbour Crossing (WHC). He continued that the bus stops at Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal (MFT) were currently overloaded in the morning peak hours, and could not accommodate buses operating bus routes from outside the district. He asked why the KMB added Route N737. When compared with that of the MTR, the routing of Route 23X was not com-petitive due to more expensive bus fare and longer journey time. He sug-gested that it should route via the Island Eastern Corridor instead of Gordon Road. He opposed the proposed re-routing of Route 18X because the journey would be longer after diversion. He also opposed the cancellation of the de-parture of Route H1 at 5 pm and suggested that the routing of Route H1 along the Victoria Harbour, apart from via Temple Street, should be considered. He asked why the reorganisation plan of bus service for Hong Kong Island South was not discussed at the meeting.

j. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that frequency reduction of Route 103P would ad-versely affect the service facilities for transportation for residents in the Mid-Levels. He said that the public would not completely change to travel by MTR without using bus service after the commissioning of the MTR West Is-land Line (WIL). In his opinion, bus and rail were complementary modes of public transport. Therefore he did not agree to cancel bus routes after the WIL had commissioned service. As reflected by some members of the public, the customer service officers of KMB and CTB were unable to explain in re-sponse to the enquiries about the frequency of Route 904. He hoped that the bus companies would follow this up. He said that it was necessary to provide overnight bus service in Western District.

15. The response given by Mr FU Ting-hong of the TD was consolidated as follows:

a. The TD, together with the bus company, would study the feasibility of adding Route 23X. According to the scales of fare, the bus fare of $9 did not exceed

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the ceiling stipulated. The TD noted Members’ views on bus fare.

b. As the last departure of Route 40 was scheduled at 9 pm, the bus would arrive at QMH around 9:15 pm. Even if the public might fail to catch the bus of the last departure of Route 40 after visiting patients in the hospital, they could still travel by buses operating Route 40M.

c. The passenger volumes of the two departures of Route 103P were more or less the same. As the maximum occupancy rate was 23%, this route was of low patronage. As such, change in departure time might not lead to increased pa-tronage. Although the waiting time of passengers would become longer after frequency reduction, the situation would be improved with the implementation of the real time bus arrival information system.

d. Implementation of sectional fare for cross-harbour routes was simply a pilot scheme, and the current one was the first stage. The following principles were used to designate bus stops starting to offer sectional fare, including avoidance of designating bus stops in busy business districts and road sections where traffic congestion occurred frequently, avoidance of causing alighting/board-ing of passengers of cross-harbour routes in a large number and thus resulting in longer journey time, and standardised delineation.

e. The TD noted Members’ views on Route H1.

16. The Chairman hoped that there would be enhanced bus service to serve residents in the Mid-Levels in future, and opposed the proposed cancellation of Routes 103P and 18/18X.

17. The reply of Mr Kevin LI, Public Affairs Manager of the CTB/NWFB, was con-solidated as follows:

a. The bus fare of Route 23X was charged according to the Government’s ap-proved fare scales. Being an express route, the company considered that the bus fare level was competitive. Having noted Members' comments, it would have further discussion with the TD about it.

b. As regards the failure to explain the frequency of Route 904 by the customer service department, he said that he needed to understand the matter first and would give Members a reply after the meeting.

c. The relevant data regarding all proposals were already set out in the BRPP for

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reference. All proposals of the bus companies were prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the TD. For example, in regard to frequency improve-ment for a route, the guidelines stipulated that the occupancy rate of the route in the peakest half-hour during the peakest period had to be 100%, together with an occupancy rate of 85% in the peakest hour which included the said peakest half-hour during the peakest period. Therefore the data cited in vari-ous proposals justifying the relevant frequency adjustment referred to the oc-cupancy rates of bus routes.

d. As regards the relevant bus route programme to tie in with the commission-ing of the MTR South Island Line (East) (SIL(E)), he understood that the department would communicate with the Committee about this in due course.

18. The reply of Mr Simon WONG, Planning and Scheduling Manager of the CTB/NWFB, was consolidated as follows:

a. Passengers travelling on Route 18X in the evening were mainly those return-ing from Eastern District to Western District. In the BRPP, there would be no change for the Kennedy Town-bound service of the route. The proposed change only involved the departures from Western District to Eastern District in the evening. According to the data of the bus company, the number of pas-sengers boarding buses of this route in the Western District in the evening was about 10 only, representing a very low patronage. After diversion of this route, it was expected that about 200 passengers would be benefitted. He said the journey time of Route 18X was more than an hour. After the commission-ing of the WIL, this express route had lost its competitive edge, and could no longer compete with the MTR service. Hoping that increase in boarding points would result in higher patronage, the bus company still endeavoured to avoid cancelling the route even it was of an extremely low patronage. After the diversion of Route 18X, a bus stop would be designated at Rumsey Street to provide service for residents in Sheung Wan.

b. The last departure of Route 40 was scheduled to depart from Wah Fu Estate at 9 pm, and the bus of this trip would arrive at QMH around 9:15 pm. It would be an hour or so after the end of visiting hours of QMH at 8 pm by then. So it was believed that the bus service could meet the need of the public after visit-ing patients in the hospital, and estimated that about 20 passengers would be affected by changing the bus schedule of the last departure.

c. Being affected by re-routing of Route 40M, passengers accessing from Lan Kwai Fong to the Mid-Levels might change to travel by other routes such as Routes 12, 12M or 13. The waiting time would be increased from 4 minutes

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in the past to 6 minutes, and the number of passengers affected about 240. The bus company would consider implementing concessionary scheme for passengers interchanging for Routes 12/12M at Lyndhurst Terrace to reduce the impact on passengers.

d. The passenger volume of Route 103P had always been very low, and reduced 50% more after the WIL had commissioned service. The existing patronage was still dropping. Although the bus schedule of the route had been revised once after the commissioning of the WIL, increase in passenger volume was not achieved.

e. He had taken note of Members’ comments on night bus service in C&W Dis-trict, and would discuss with the TD on them.

f. He had noted and would study Members’ proposal regarding Route 23X which included frequency improvement, provision of return trips in the evening and additional departure from Caine Road.

g. Last year, Members were consulted about the service of Route 3A, which was revised accordingly in this year’s BRPP. In the new proposal, only two depar-tures heading to Central at 7:45 am and 3:15 pm were cancelled, and only a single-digit number of passengers would be affected. Based on the findings of field inspection, there were still sufficient seats on GMBs operating Route 54 during the relevant periods for picking up the affected passengers.

h. As noted, Members wanted Route H1 to be routed via more scenery spots. He pointed out that the passenger volume of the route was very low at 5 pm, and therefore the proposed cancellation of the departure was aimed to use resource more efficiently.

19. Ms Peggy WONG , Assistant Manager (Planning & Development) of the KMB, added that the proposed addition of a bus route via the WHC was mainly aimed to meet the need of local residents in the New Territories who were residing far away from the MTR stations. As each frequency would be 20 to 30 minutes or so, the additional bus service would not exert much extra pressure on the traffic conditions in C&W District.

20. Mr Roger MA , Operations Manager of the NWFB, added that sectional fare would be offered to Route 18X departing from Central to Eastern District, as proposed in the BRPP. He added that passengers could still board at the Statue Square even after cancelling the departure of Route H1 at 5 pm.

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21. The Chairman invited second-round discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Ms CHENG Lai-king asked whether an application of mobile phone would be developed to facilitate passengers waiting for Route 23X to access to the infor-mation on bus arrival. She continued that, with the continuous cancellation of bus routes over the years, there was no more bus route departing from the Mid-Levels to Sheung Wan. As such, she hoped that the TD and bus compa-nies would think of providing the relevant services.

b. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that, as reflected by some members of the public, the frequency of Route 904 on Saturday as stated in the official website of the bus company was different from the actual service provision. He hoped the bus company would follow this up. He added that Route 18X would lose its com-petitive edge of being an express route after re-routing. He recommended en-hancement to bus service of Route 5 rather than diversion of Route 18X. He asked the bus companies why they only thought of implementing frequency reduction instead of competing pro-actively with the MTR when facing de-crease in passenger volume of individual bus routes. He said that the dropping patronage was largely attributed to unpunctual bus service and insufficient in-formation provided to the public on using bus service. He said that the real time bus arrival information system should be open for use by the public.

c. Mr LEUNG King-yue said that addition of bus routes beginning with “9” would increase the traffic loading of Sheung Wan and Connaught Road Cen-tral. He asked what long-term method would be employed to divert the buses using the bus stops at the MFT. He pointed out that it was unnecessary for some bus routes to route via the MFT. He reiterated his suggestion that the TD should better utilise the bus stops at WHC for diverting the bus traffic so as to reduce the number of bus routes routing via the MFT and making use of the bus stops there for boarding/alighting passengers.

d. Mr NG Siu-hong suggested that trial run of Route 18X could take place on Caine Road for data collection. He clarified that the waiting time of passen-gers at Lan Kwai Fong for buses travelling to the Mid-Levels was more than the bus company’s estimation of 4 minutes. Therefore he requested the bus company to maintain the existing bus frequency and disclose the relevant data regarding bus service.

e. Ms SIU Ka-yi said that the time of passengers waiting buses in D’Aguilar

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Street and Lyndhurst Terrace for travelling to the Mid-Levels was more than 4 minutes. Based on her experience, the average waiting time was 10 minutes. She asked whether the estimated waiting time of 4 minutes was obtained from statistical findings during field inspection or from calculation by the computer system. She reiterated that residents in the Mid-Levels did not benefit from the MTR service, and frequency reduction would not bring them more alterna-tive transport modes. Therefore she hoped that the bus companies could con-sider frequency reduction from the perspective of residents in the Mid-Levels.

f. Mr CHAN Hok-fung pointed out there was stable patronage for Route 43M, and that the service of GMB Route 23 was always inadequate. He hoped that the TD and bus company would study the ways to enhance bus service depart-ing from Southern District to Kennedy Town.

22. The response given by Mr FU Ting-hong of the TD was consolidated as follows:

a. The CTB had carried out the trial run of the real time bus arrival information system for 8 bus routes. The TD noted Members’ comments on Route 18X to become a general route after re-routing. He pointed out that re-routing only involved departures of Route 18X departing from Western District to Eastern District in the evening. Residents returning from Eastern District to Western District after work would not be affected by such alteration.

b. Passengers residing near the bus stops of Route 103P could instead travel by Route 103, which covered the major routing of Route 103P.

c. He noted Members’ comments on provision of new bus service departing from Southern District to Kennedy Town, and their request for disclosure of data re-garding bus service.

23. Mr Kevin LI of the CTB/NWFB pointed out that the real time bus arrival enquiry service would be provided for all NWFB and CTB routes in 2018 as expected. A large amount of investment and recurrent expenditure were required to develop a real time in-formation system, and the cost was solely borne by the companies. In addition, real time information possessed commercial value. For these reasons, it would not be pro-vided for use by a third-party developer for free.

24. Mr Simon WONG of the CTB/NWFB responded that calculation of passenger waiting time was based on the bus schedule and service hours of the route. He supple-mented that an optimisation scheme of Route 18X was proposed last year. It proposed

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to re-route via Island Eastern Corridor for enhanced competitiveness, but was not sup-ported at that time. He explained that the bus companies tried not to reduce frequency and, as far as possible, use other methods such as re-routing to improve the patronage.

25. The Chairman requested the TD or bus companies to provide a consolidated re-sponse to Members’ comments after the meeting. The C hairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 7: Provision of Cover for Walkway(C&W TTC Paper No. 6/2017)(4:06 pm – 5:26 pm)

26. Mr LEE Sai-hang , Engineer/Special Duty 1 of the TD, said that he had invited the Committee to propose suitable sites for the provision of cover to walkways earlier. The TD had received 8 proposals in total, of which 3 walkways met the eligibility criteria of the measure announced in the Policy Address (i.e. connecting to public transport inter-changes or railway stations). The TD had conducted preliminary study of the three pro-posed walkways for assessment, including the length of the proposed cover, width of the existing pedestrian walkway and average hourly pedestrian flow from 7 am to 9 am.

27. Mr LEE Sai-hang of the TD continued to brief on the eligible proposals:

a. Proposal 2: Provision of cover at pedestrian walkway connecting t he section of Pok Fu Lam Road off Academic Terrace and To Li Terrace eastbound to MTR University of Hong Kong ( HKU ) Station Exit C1 As regards Proposal 2, the length of the proposed cover was 366 m, and the width of the existing pedestrian walkway varied from about 1.8 m to 3.7 m. The average hourly pedestrian flow from 7 am to 9 am included 720 person trips excluding the elderly and 40 person trips of the elderly. The technical assessment indicated that there were big trees, large traffic signs, fire hydrants, fire services inlets, sprinkler inlets, street boxes, posting boxes and vehicular access along the alignment. Moreover, some parts of the land concerned were neither managed by the TD nor maintained by the HyD.

b. Proposal 5: Provision of rain shelter on Pokfield Path i n Kennedy Town As regards Proposal 5, the length of the proposed cover was 119 m, and the width of the existing pedestrian walkway varied from about 2.3 m to 4.6 m. The average hourly pedestrian flow from 7 am to 9 am included 151 person

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trips excluding the elderly and 9 person trips of the elderly. The technical as-sessment indicated that there were many privately-owned facilities including ventilation openings, pedestrian entrance of buildings, fire escapes, electricity meter boxes, and entrance of power substation along the alignment. If this alignment was adopted, it would be necessary to discuss on the details with the owners of the private lots concerned in future.

c. Proposal 6: Provision of cover at pedestrian walkway connecting the section of Rock Hill Street off Axeford Villa in Sands Street to MTR Kennedy Town Station Exit BAs regards Proposal 6, the length of the proposed cover was 134 m, and the width of the existing pedestrian walkway varied from about 2.2 m to 2.9 m. The average hourly pedestrian flow from 7 am to 9 am included 1 073 person trips excluding the elderly and 182 person trips of the elderly. The technical assessment indicated that there were fire hydrants, traffic lights, wall paint-ings, vehicular access, trees and retaining walls, etc. along the alignment.

28. Mr LEE Sai-hang of the TD requested Members to select one out of the three pro-posed walkways for study.

29. The Chairman said that the Committee and the relevant departments had conducted site visit to the locations of the proposed walkways. He hoped that the three proposed walkways could be prioritised at the meeting. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Mr CHAN Hok-fung said that the Committee had conducted site visit to Aca-demic Terrace and Pok Fu Lam Road without inspecting the site at Pokfield Path, but he got to know the situation of Pokfield Path in general. On the whole, he was in support of the proposal of providing cover at Axeford Villa because, being a main access to an MTR station, it was of higher pedestrian flow and there would be more direct beneficiaries. The project was relatively simple as well. He requested the TD to brief on the procedures and relevant timetable after an alignment was nominated.

b. Mr CHAN Chit-kwai supported all the three proposals. Relatively speaking, Academic Terrace and Axeford Villa were of higher patronage. He reminded that many trees were growing along Pok Fu Lam Road. So, if such proposal was adopted, he hoped that the new cover would comprise many sections to

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avoid tree felling. He added that, as regards the proposal at Axeford Villa, the lamp posts on the road should be a matter of concern.

c. Mr YEUNG Hoi-wing hoped that the Committee would also discuss his pro-posal because there were schools and residential developments situating on Pokfield Path, and the pedestrian flow was not too low there. He wanted to know the coming procedures the TD would undergo.

d. Mr KAM Nai-wai asked how the proposed walkways were determined. Be-sides, he had pointed out at a meeting of the District Facilities Management Committee that someone had given views to the provision of cover for walk-way via the Internet. Therefore he asked whether consultation would be con-ducted before coming to any decision. He recalled that, after the last exercise of retrofitting lifts in the district, some members of the public reflected that provision of lifts at some locations were unnecessary. He considered it waste-ful of money in such case. Therefore he asked whether local consultation would be conducted this time. In his opinion, everything should be handled with care to avoid the occurrence of white elephant projects.

e. Ms CHENG Lai-king asked whether provision of cover was funded by the TD. As she thought that the provision of cover for the section of Pok Fu Lam Road from Academic Terrace to MTR HKU Station Exit C1 was not neces-sary, she opposed the proposal. She wanted to consult the residents in the area of Academic Terrace and HKU students about this. She also wanted to con-duct public consultation and requested the relevant departments to provide the estimated construction cost to the public for reference. She asked whether the construction works would commence once a walkway was nominated at the meeting.

f. Mr HUI Chi-fung indicated that provision of cover would make some narrow road sections narrower and less spacious, bringing inconvenience to pedestri-ans especially those who were pushing baby carriages or trolleys. If a walk-way had to be chosen for provision of cover in the district simply to fulfil a policy, he would have reservation to it. He thought that the last phase of “Universal Accessibility” (UA) Programme was a case of failure. He added that if one walkway had to be nominated out of the three proposals for imple-mentation, the Administration should have learnt a lesson from the last phase of the UA Programme by consulting the residents near the proposed walkways

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first and providing the construction cost for reference.

g. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that if he was not a Co-opted Member, he might not come to know that the District Council (DC) would discuss and decide on such district works. He wondered if there were other sites more suitable than the three proposed ones for implementing the project, and asked whether an extensive local consultation would be conducted.

h. Mr YIP Wing-shing said that it had been a very clear process for the TD to consult the Committee. Members were invited to make suggestions through the consultation paper. He believed that Members were concerned about the affairs and development of the district. He said that although there was no gradient for the road section between Academic Terrace and the MTR station, the elderly or people pushing baby carriages would still find it very difficult to walk along this road in rainy or sunny days. Provision of cover for this walk-way would facilitate residents to use the access more comfortably. He said he would support whichever proposal selected as long as it was beneficial to the people’s livelihood. He also believed that the Government would consult the public before implementing the project.

30. Mr CHAN Chi-ming , Senior Engineer/Special Duty of Traffic Engineering (HK) Division of the TD, said that to tie in with the announcement in the Policy Address 2016, the 18 districts in the territory were invited to nominate walkways for provision of cover in each district. It aimed to provide cover for suitable walkways with the help of DC Members who knew their districts well. After a DC had selected the alignment pro-posals, the HyD would appoint a consultant to first examine the feasibility of the first-priority option. In case this option was found to be technically infeasible due to insur-mountable difficulties identified, feasibility of the second-priority option would be ex-amined immediately, and so on. This aimed to speed up the pace of implementation. Subsequently, it would explain the details of the proposal to the respective DC and col-lect Members’ views. The proposal was required to be published in the gazette. Prior to gazettal, consultation and collection of opinion from the affected members of the public would be conducted before implementation. He supplemented that the Government would submit fund application according to the estimated construction cost as stated in the report. If the cost of a project was less than $30 million, an application for Category D project funding could be made. If a project cost $30 million or above, a Category A project funding application had to be made. Preparation of cost estimation would take into account various factors such as design and underground services, etc. In regard to

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works design, it would endeavour to provide a comfortable covered pedestrian walkway that met the needs of the public without affecting the existing trees.

31. Mr TSANG Hin-man , Senior Engineer/Covered Walkway 2 of the HyD, said that as there were many trees growing along the alignment in Proposal 2, it would be more difficult to design for the works. He expected that the consultant would submit an in-vestigation report at the end of 2017 at the earliest.

32. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze , District Officer (Central and Western) (“DO(C&W)”), said that the TD had introduced the programme to Members at a TTC meeting held ear-lier. Subsequently, the Secretariat invited all Members to make proposals for implemen-tation. The HyD then conducted a preliminary assessment of Members’ proposals, and sorted the three proposed walkways in C&W District eligible for implementation. The Secretariat had also arranged field inspection for Members in order to enhance their un-derstanding of the proposed walkways. She said that the department would on the one hand listen to the public opinion and on the other, conduct feasibility study simultane-ously to speed up the relevant consultation and discussion.

33. The Chairman believed that Members had made the abovementioned proposals based on their persistent observation of the district and communication with the public. He hoped that Members could assign priority to the said proposals at the meeting. The C hairman invited second-round discussion.

a. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that record check of the past minutes confirmed that the Secretariat had invited Members to raise their views, and had made ar-rangement for site visit. However, he did not know what comments had been raised by other Members, and what principles and procedures were employed to select the three proposals in the end. He supplemented that even after one proposal had been nominated out of the three, the experience learnt from the last lift retrofitting exercise should be remembered. Therefore he suggested that consultation of local residents on the three proposed walkways be carried out. Decision should be made at the next meeting according to the views col-lected from the public. He did not object to the three proposed walkways, but wanted to listen more about the residents’ views.

b. Mr LEE Chi-hang said that as stated in the minutes of the meeting held on 8 September 2016, the department had clearly explained the procedures in this matter that day. He suggested that an extract of the minutes of meeting con-

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cerned as well as justifications for accepting and rejecting the proposals put forward by Members should be prepared for information. He said that it was difficult for him to give comments immediately due to the limited information provided because he wanted to collect more views given by the public. How-ever, he did not think that the project was a white elephant project. So he hoped that Members would not blindly oppose the projects proposed by the Government.

c. Mr HUI Chi-fung hoped that the views of the public would be respected in this matter, and considered that the consultation was completely conducted ac-cording to the established practice without procedural unfairness. He said that it would be better if Members would be informed of all suggestions as quickly as possible after collecting the views. As a supplementary remark, he hoped that gazettal would not be mistaken as a kind of public consultation by the de-partment. As the three proposed walkways were selected in accordance with the established practice, he hoped that the Central and Western District Office (C&WDO) would assist in conducting the consultation exercise by sending letters to the owners’ corporations and shop operators near the proposed sites to seek their views. He hoped that the public would give positive comments to the project upon completion. He added that he would be opposed to the project if the consultation was not conducted in a manner as extensive as gazettal.

d. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that he had asked the Secretariat for the brief report and wanted to understand the relevant documents clearly. He hoped that the public could know the Government’s project as early as possible.

e. Mr CHAN Hok-fung said that Members should be accountable to the public. If a proposed works was confirmed to be a white elephant project in future, the Members making the proposal had to give an account to the public. He opined that it was the responsibility of Members to consult the electorate, and believed that Members making the proposals had consulted the local residents beforehand. But even it was so, the Government still needed to conduct fur-ther consultation about the project.

f. Mr YIP Wing-shing said that the work of a DC was transparent and the pro-gramme was still in the preliminary stage. He opined that it was the responsi-bility of Members to consult the public. He also agreed that local residents in

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the vicinity of the sites concerned should be consulted. However, he did not agree to implement tree felling for provision of cover. He reiterated that he would support the proposal that would bring most benefits to the people’s livelihood from among the three proposed ones even if such proposal was not his.

g. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that it was the responsibility of all DC Members, not only Members of constituencies concerned of the proposed sites, to monitor the project. Members would be criticised by the public if the cover to be pro-vided could not effectively shelter users of the walkway from rain or wind. As the public would monitor the project, every procedure including site selec-tion and design preparation had to be handled with care.

h. Mr YIP Kam-lung enquired whether more consultation exercises could be conducted. He worried that the public would mistake that a project gazetted was the final one. He hoped that public consultation could be conducted at an earlier time in the preliminary stage of the project.

34. DO(C&W) agreed to ensure that facilities provided with public fund had to be ben-eficial to the community. She added that the TD had explained to the TTC on 8 Sep-tember 2016 about the criteria for meeting the requirement, including a relatively high pedestrian flow, a location with connection to public transport facilities and an adequate width for such provision. She suggested that the TD should explain why some propos-als did not meet the requirements. The Secretariat would provide Members with the supplementary information after the meeting.

35. Mr CHAN Chi-ming of the TD said that the project was required to be published in the Gazette, and that the affected people would be consulted before the preliminary de-sign and gazettal. He added that only three proposals from among the received ones were compliant with the criteria announced in the Policy Address. For this reason, the TD had provided information of the technical assessment on the three proposals. As re-gards the five ineligible proposals, three were not connected to the public transport facil-ities and railway stations while two were not managed by the HyD and TD. As a result, they were rejected in the current programme. He said that cover would only be pro-vided to one pedestrian walkway in each district at this stage. After the DC had nomi-nated a walkway for works implementation, the HyD would appoint a consultant to con-duct investigation study to examine the feasibility of the proposal and consult the af-fected residents simultaneously.

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36. The Chairman expressed his expectation of reaching a consensus about prioritiza-tion of the three proposed walkways at the meeting so that the relevant departments could proceed to further investigations. The Chairman tended to support the provision of cover for the proposed walkway outside the MTR Kennedy Town Station because of higher pedestrian flow.

37. Mr LEE Chi-hang said that he could not comment on the proposals that day. He suggested that the C&WDO should consult the public on the three proposals or arrange site visit for Members to understand and compare various proposals. He objected to nominate a proposal based on the information available that day. It was because once a decision was made at the meeting, the department would only examine the first-priority option without considering the remaining ones.

38. Mr CHAN Chi-ming of the TD responded that it currently planned to examine the first-priority option only. Therefore it was difficult to carry out consultation for sites yet to be decided for works implementation.

39. The Chairman invited third-round discussion. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr YEUNG Hok-ming was concerned that even if site visit was arranged for Members again, it would be difficult to ensure that all Members would show up. He said that a responsible Member would take initiative to conduct site visit to the proposed walkways for understanding the actual situation even if no site visit was arranged.

b. Mr HUI Chi-fung thought that the focus was not on whether site visit to the proposed sites would be arranged, but on whether public consultation had been conducted. He suggested that residents to be affected by the three pro-posed walkways should be consulted first. He agreed to consult the public through the C&WDO at an earlier time in the preliminary stage, and assign priority to the proposals according to the public opinion at the next meeting.

c. Mr YIP Kam-lung hoped for proper utilisation of the public money. He sug-gested that the department should provide supplementary information on the ineligible proposals, and consult nearby local residents on the three proposed sites.

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d. Mr KAM Nai-wai disagreed to the TD in that it would not conduct consulta-tion for proposals yet to be planned for implementation. He queried why con-sultation could not be done first. He also asked the department for providing the information on the rejected proposals so that the public could come to know what proposals Members had made but were found to be ineligible. He suggested that consultation be conducted as soon as possible so that they could come to a decision at the next meeting.

e. Mr CHAN Hok-fung hoped that the HyD could provide a preliminary design to facilitate public consultation by the C&WDO and Members. He asked whether the HyD could consolidate Members’ comments raised during the last site visit and incorporate them in the design. He pointed out that the major projects in C&W District were implemented according to the established prac-tice in the past. He hoped that the HyD could provide more information to fa-cilitate consultation.

40. DO(C&W) indicated that the meeting aimed to preliminarily consult Members in this matter, and the TD and C&WDO had also planned to conduct local consultation. She reiterated that the TD had planned to consult the residents who would be affected by the project after the Central and Western District Council (C&WDC) had assigned prior-ity to the proposed walkways. She added that the TD had explained to Members why five proposals were ineligible in its presentation materials. The Secretariat had also dis-tributed to the participants of the said site visit an information paper setting out all pro-posals made by Members. She said that the Secretariat would distribute the information paper to all Members after the meeting. She suggested that, no matter whether the three proposed walkways were given priority at the meeting, consultation about the three pro-posals would still be carried out by the C&WDO.

41. Mr CHAN Chi-ming of the TD said that cover would be provided for one walkway only under the plan. Upon prioritisation of the proposals by the DC, resources would be concentrated on the first-priority option, including consultation and preliminary design.

42. The Chairman recommended the TD to concentrate resources on examining the feasibility of the first-priority option and the C&WDO to consult the public about the other two proposals at the same time.

43. DO(C&W) said that at the time of consultation, the consultation paper could

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clearly state that only one walkway would be nominated for provision of cover. She suggested that the TD should prepare the design for the first-priority option, and the C&WDO would consult the residents about the three proposed walkways simultane-ously.

44. The Chairman invited third-round discussion. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr YIP Wing-shing suggested that the Committee should first select a walk-way so that the department could proceed to conduct a feasibility study for the first-priority option. Once the preliminary design was available, further dis-cussion would be held to determine if such design was to be accepted. How-ever, it was probable that the investigation report might assess such proposal to be technically infeasible for implementation. Therefore he suggested that Members should give their views first and assign priority to the three propos-als.

b. Mr KAM Nai-wai objected to assign priority to the three proposed walkways at the meeting if no prior consultation about them had been conducted.

c. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked whether the department would prepare design for one proposed walkway only. He suggested that the views of the public on all proposals should be consulted.

d. Mr LEE Chi-hang said that the department requested the Committee to pri-oritise the three proposed walkways, prepare a design for the first-priority op-tion, and then consult the public on the design. Contrarily, he or some Mem-bers wanted to consult the public on the three proposed walkways first, and then prioritise the proposals according to the views of the public collected. He pointed out that the orientation of these two kinds of consultation were com-pletely different. He wanted to consult the public as quickly as possible, and then assign priority to the options. Otherwise, he was not in a position to raise comments at the meeting.

45. The Chairman said that he would not request the Committee to vote for a result that day, but hoped that the Committee would reach a consensus for the priority of the three sites. He said that priority of the three sites could be assigned first, and conducted the consultation exercise at the same time, stating the inclination of the Committee in the

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consultation paper. Otherwise, it would be difficult for the department to proceed to the next stage of work.

46. Mr TSANG Hin-man of the HyD said that he originally planned to appoint a con-sultant to conduct investigation study of the nominated walkway quickly after obtaining the views of the Committee. Only by doing so could a design be worked out more effi-ciently and be introduced to the Members earlier. In view of the resources currently available, it was difficult to submit three designs of high accuracy within a short time. More time would be required for doing so.

47. The Chairman invited last-round discussion. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr LEE Chi-hang hoped that the department would provide a preliminary de-sign and estimated construction cost for each of the proposed walkways. He indicated that he at present could not give comments on the three proposed walkways on behalf of the general public.

b. Mr CHAN Chit-kwai suggested that the department should provide a simple design drawing for each of the three proposals for extensive consultation. He agreed that the Committee should reach a consensus for prioritisation of the three sites. He suggested that the consultation paper should mention the atti-tude of the Committee towards the three proposals, but stressed that public opinion would be considered before making a final decision.

c. The Chairman pointed out that the Committee should assign priority to the proposals and consultation should be conducted simultaneously. He proposed to use pedestrian flow as the benchmark for prioritisation. In this way, Mr CHEUNG Kwok-kwan’s proposal ranked first by having the highest patron-age while Mr YIP Wing-shing’s proposal ranked second.

d. Mr YIP Wing-shing proposed to prioritise the three proposed walkways first so that the department could proceed to the next procedure while consultation would be conducted at the same time.

e. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that once priority had been accorded to the proposals, the views collected in the subsequent consultation would be biased. He did not agree to the comments of the HyD and TD that it was a waste of resources

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to consult the public about walkways which were not planned for provision of cover. He thought that collection of public opinion through consultation was not anything wasteful.

f. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that he opposed prioritisation of the three proposed sites at the meeting. He requested to conduct consultation for the three pro-posals first, and then assign priority to them.

g. Ms CHENG Lai-king agreed with Mr KAM.

h. Mr LEE Chi-hang agreed with Mr KAM.

i. Mr NG Siu-hong agreed with Mr KAM.

j. Mr HUI Chi-fung agreed with Mr KAM.

k. Miss NG Hoi-yan agreed with Mr KAM.

l. Mr YIP Kam-lung agreed with Mr KAM.

48. The Chairman concluded that pedestrian flow would then be taken as the bench-mark for prioritisation, and requested the C&WDO to simultaneously conduct local con-sultation on all the proposed walkways. The C hairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 8: Proposed Enhancement to Pedestrian Crossing Facilities at Des Voeux Road Central (Stage1 - Update and Stage 2 - Initial Proposal) (C&W TTC Paper No. 7/2017)(5:26 pm – 5:55 pm)

49. Ms MAK Ka-ki , Senior Engineer/Central and Western of the TD, said that as pro-posed to Members in February 2016, the TD would study about the ways to optimise the pedestrian crossing facilities in Des Voeux Road Central. In June 2016, the TD reported to Members on the research findings of four junctions under study. The TD had pre-pared proposed enhancement to pedestrian crossing facilities for three junctions (includ-ing that at Morrison Street, Cleverly Street and Rumsey Street) except for the remaining one at Jubilee Street due to environmental constraints and low feasibility of optimisa-tion. She said that the HyD had largely completed the enhancement works at the junc-

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tion of Morrison Street in late 2016. The HyD also expected that the enhancement works at the junctions of Cleverly Street and Rumsey Street would be completed in mid-2017. At the meeting, she would focus on introducing to Members the initial proposal about enhancement to pedestrian crossing facilities at Queen Victoria Street, Hillier Street and Gilman Street.

50. Ms LOU Ching-yee , Engineer/Central and Western 1 of the TD, pointed out that pedestrian crossings were provided at three sides of the junction at Queen Victoria Street. The TD proposed to widen two of the three existing pedestrian crossings (in-cluding the one across Queen Victoria Street (between Central Market and Chiyu Bank Building) and the one across Des Voeux Road Central (between Central Market and Hang Seng Bank Building), as well as convert the traffic direction of the eastern traffic lane on Queen Victoria Street (between Connaught Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central) to “Left Turn Only”. The TD had considered widening the pedestrian crossing outside Chiyu Bank Building, but found in the trial run that it had negative impact on bus movement including turning. The proposal was thus rejected. The TD had also considered widening the pedestrian crossing across Queen Victoria Street (between Hang Seng Bank Building and Nexxus Building). However, during the excavation of test pits, it was found that a lot of underground public facilities were densely aligned at the said site. The proposal was thus rejected. Pedestrian crossings were provided at two sides of the junction at Gilman Street. As the pedestrian crossing across Des Voeux Road Central was adjacent to a tram stop, widening could not be implemented there. As such, widening of the pedestrian crossing across Gilman Street was proposed alongside the provision of railing on the pedestrian refuge near the tram stop off Tai Sang Bank Building, facilitating the public to wait at a safe place for crossing the road. Pedestrian crossings were provided at three sides of the junction at Hillier Street. As the pedes-trian crossing across Des Voeux Road Central (between Finance Building and Kam Sang Building) was adjacent to a tram stop, widening could not be implemented there. As such, widening of the two pedestrian crossings across Hillier Street was proposed. The said works would involve alteration of dropped kerb; relocation or addition of street furniture, traffic signal equipment and traffic signs; as well as alteration of road mark-ings. When necessary, the HyD would conduct excavation of test pits for assessing the technical feasibility of the said proposal. During the excavation of test pits and the works period, temporary closure of carriageway and/or walkway would be required. The HyD would progressively submit temporary traffic arrangement proposals and ap-ply for excavation permits.

51. She continued to say that the said projects might encounter technical difficulties

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and environmental constraints. For example, as regards widening of pedestrian cross-ings, temporary closure of carriageway for relocation of gullies might be required. Ow-ing to the busy traffic in the district, temporary closure of carriageway might not be fea-sible. She also pointed out that if the actual site environment allowed, the TD would re-locate the street furniture, traffic signal equipment and traffic signs, etc. to places away from the pedestrian crossings concerned as far as possible for avoidance of causing ob-struction to pedestrians. Given the congested state of public utilities and pipes under-ground in the district, relocation of street furniture, traffic signal equipment and traffic signs, etc. to places away from the pedestrian crossings concerned might not be viable. In view of the difficulties and environmental constraints mentioned above, the HyD would study the feasibility of the proposals and the related arrangements. Moreover, removal of tram stop pillars was a very difficult task. Such being the case, the existing tram poles would continue to be erected at the original position even if widening of the pedestrian crossing concerned had been implemented.

52. Ms MAK Ka-ki of the TD hoped that Members’ views would be collected at the meeting and local consultation conducted in due course. It was expected that various projects would be commenced gradually in late 2017.

53. The Chairman invited Members to raise enquiries and comments. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Mr CHAN Hok-fung said that the proposed conversion of the existing traffic lane to “Left Turn Only” on Queen Victoria Street could not solve the prob-lem. Currently, it was difficult for vehicles to turn left due to obstruction caused by buses picking up/dropping off passengers. The TD should consider relocating or combining bus stops thereat.

b. Mr KAM Nai-wai thought that motorists found it difficult to turn the vehicles left from Queen Victoria Street. Therefore the TD’s proposed cancellation of vehicular traffic to access straight ahead along the traffic lanes in Queen Vic-toria Street, and the proposed conversion of one of the existing traffic lane in the said street to “Left Turn Only” were not solutions to address the problem. He asked why the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Hillier Street and Wing Lok Street was not covered in the study. He pointed out that the said site, apart from being a place where many traffic accidents occurred, was also of a very high pedestrian flow through which people went to the MTR station. He pointed out that the TD was requested to conduct a study of this site in a

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previous meeting.

c. Mr LEE Chi-hang said that it was necessary for the TD to study the problem of pedestrian-vehicle conflict occurring at the junction of Hillier Street and Wing Lok Street. He continued that the two lanes on Hillier Street were very narrow indeed. He asked how the TD could widen the pavement with the two lanes remained unchanged. He said that currently large vehicles might easily came into contract with pedestrians when making the turning movement. He suggested that the two lanes on Hillier Street be merged to a single lane and to lengthen the vehicular green time of traffic lights to facilitate smooth flow of vehicles. He had proposed to prohibit the vehicles on Des Voeux Road Cen-tral from turning right to Hillier Street because the latter was too narrow in-deed. When large vehicles were making a turning movement, they would of-ten make use part of the space of the pavement. Therefore pedestrians had to give way to them by moving backward to let such vehicles pass first. He hoped that the TD would take the two said proposals into account.

d. Ms SIU Ka-yi said that when a bus was about to make a turning movement near the Bank of China on Des Voeux Road Central, pedestrians on the pave-ment often had to step back to give way to the bus to pass through first. She agreed that widening of walkway was needed, but worried that there would not be sufficient space for buses to make the turning movement. She hoped that the TD would provide professional advice to help make the choice be-tween the two options. She thought that the junction of Hillier Street and Wing Lok Street was highly prone to traffic accidents and might be included as an item for further study.

e. Ms CHENG Lai-king asked whether the pedestrian flow would be diverted af-ter widening the pedestrian crossings.

f. Mr LEUNG King-yue disagreed with some Members who thought that it was difficult for buses on Queen Victoria Street to turn left. Based on his observa-tion, the difficulty for vehicles to turn left was caused by lack of coordination among the traffic lights on Des Voeux Road Central. Congestion would take place when the vehicular flow was high. In addition, many goods vehicles il-legally occupied the bus stops for loading/unloading activities, causing the boarding/alighting of bus passengers at the central lane and indirectly leading to traffic congestion. He proposed to relocate the bus stop of Route 104 to ad-

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dress the traffic congestion partly caused by the picking up/setting down of bus passengers. Besides, he proposed to widen the pedestrian refuge provided at the junction of Des Voeux Road Central and Queen Victoria Street.

54. Ms MAK Ka-ki of the TD responded that the objective of widening pedestrian crossings was to allow more pedestrians to cross a road during each pedestrian green time of traffic lights. The TD had conducted site visits when studying the need of widen-ing pedestrian crossings, and had tried to strike a balance between vehicular flow and pedestrian flow as far as is practicable in the proposal. As regards the problem for buses to make a turn at the junction of Queen Victoria Street, the TD had conducted site visit with bus company, and conducted trial run with buses operating at the said site for study. The findings showed that widening of the pavement outside the Chiyu Bank Building would affect buses from making a turn and pose potential hazard to pedestrians waiting there for crossing the road. Therefore widening of the pavement outside the Chiyu Bank Building was not recommended. As regards the pedestrian crossing at the junction of Hillier Street and Wing Lok Street, she undertook to look into this matter in due course.

55. As regards the junction at Queen Victoria Street, Ms LOU Ching-yee of the TD re-sponded that the vehicular traffic making a left turn at the junction of Des Voeux Road Central and Queen Victoria Street was high. Under such circumstances, it was proposed to convert the traffic direction of the eastern traffic lane on Queen Victoria Street to “Left Turn Only”. She said that the TD was discussing with the bus companies on study-ing the feasibility of re-routing the bus routes concerned so as to avoid buses from mak-ing a right turn on Des Voeux Road Central to Hillier Street. As regards Members’ pro-posal of combining the two lanes to a single lane in Hillier Street, she considered it in-appropriate having regard to the high vehicular flow at Hillier Street.

56. The Chairman invited second-round discussion. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that as learnt from record check, Members had re-quested the TD twice to study the optimisation of the junction of Hillier Street and Wing Lok Street. However, in its replies, the TD just said that it had taken note of the request. He requested the TD to put forward a specific timetable for action.

57. As regards the traffic problem at the junction of Hillier Street and Wing Lok Street,

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Ms LOU Ching-yee of the TD responded that the TD would report the progress to Members at the meeting of the District Management Committee in due course.

58. The Chair man requested the department to implement the works as soon as possi-ble by resolving the simple issues before the difficult ones. The C hairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 9: Future Development of Site 3 on the New Central Harbourfront - Pedes-trian Network and Temporary Pedestrian Link Arrangement(C&W TTC Paper No. 8/2017) (5:55 pm – 6:38 pm)

59. Miss AU Wing-yan , Principal Assistant Secretary (Harbour) of the Development Bureau (DEVB), introduced the paper with main points as follows:

a. Project Background : Site 3 was one of the eight key sites under the Urban Design Study for the New Central Harbourfront (the Study), which was com-pleted by the Planning Department (PlanD) in 2011. The Study recom-mended that Site 3 be used for comprehensive development mainly for office and retail commercial uses, together with the provision of a landscaped pedes-trian deck, public open space (POS) and other supporting facilities. The de-veloper of Site 3 was required by the Town Planning Ordinance to make a Master Layout Plan (MLP) submission to the Town Planning Board (TPB) for approval before commencing construction. To provide comprehensive guid-ance to the developer, a planning brief (PB) setting out the broad development parameters and the planning and design requirements of the site was prepared. The C&WDC was consulted on the draft PB in October 2016. Having consid-ered the views of C&WDC members, the PlanD had amended the draft PB as appropriate. The revised PB was approved by the Metro Planning Committee of the TPB in December 2016. In April 2016, the DEVB commissioned a consultant to study the technical feasibility of connections under the proposed pedestrian network. Consequently, it was confirmed that such construction was technically feasible, and specific alignments were also proposed for im-plementation by the developer in future.

b. At-grade Connections : Existing pedestrian links from Connaught Place to the Central Piers along the south-north axis and from the future development to Jardine House, Exchange Square, IFC II, City Hall Complex and future Site 4

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along the east-west direction would be retained. Pedestrians might also con-tinue to pass through Site 3 in the east-west direction through the existing pavements on both sides of Lung Wo Road and Yiu Sing Street. The Govern-ment also expected the future development to provide a new at-grade pedes-trian link along the south-north axis to the east of the site, such that the public might reach the vicinity of the Central Piers at the ground level.

c. Elevated Connections : A continuous landscaped deck spanning across Lung Wo Road and Yiu Sing Street with a minimum 6-metre-wide unobstructed pedestrian access connecting Connaught Place to the Central Piers should be provided along the north-south axis within the site. Meanwhile, the land-scaped deck should also make suitable provisions for future connection with Sites 1 and 2 of the new Central harbourfront, and provide elevated connec-tions to the surrounding developments (including Jardine House, Exchange Square, IFC II and the Central piers). Among these, the developer should construct a new footbridge to connect Site 3 and IFC II.

d. Undergroun d Connections : The existing subway from Statue Square to the site across Connaught Road Central would be retained. A new underground connection providing direct access from MTR Central Station to the under-ground development of Site 3 across Connaught Road Central should be con-structed and managed by the developer.

e. Temporary Footbridge : Assuming that Site 3 would be developed according to the existing design concept, the existing temporary footbridge within the site connecting Connaught Place and the Central Piers would have to be de-molished by phases. To maintain existing pedestrian access during the con-struction period, a temporary footbridge should be provided by the developer at the same service level with Barrier-free Access. The technical study recom-mended the developer to construct a temporary footbridge to the east of Man Yiu Street as an alternative connection. With its proximity to the existing footbridge and retention of the existing connection points, the temporary foot-bridge would help maintain pedestrian connectivity and accessibility towards the harbourfront and the Central Piers, as well as minimising the impact on pedestrians. Any temporary pedestrian access had to be planned, constructed, managed and maintained by the developer during the construction period, and open to the public round-the-clock.

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f. Implementation Arrangement : To fulfil the abovementioned requirements, the developer had to devise a comprehensive pedestrian network plan and submit it as part of the MLP submission for the future development of Site 3. The MLP, including the design of the pedestrian network, would be submitted for review by relevant Government departments before approval by the TPB. The TPB would also invite public views on the MLP. Conditions would be in-cluded in the relevant land lease requiring the developer to maintain 24-hour unobstructed public access for such pedestrian links upon completion.

g. Closure of Existing Roads : According to the notional architectural scheme referenced during the drafting of the PB, the existing Star Ferry Car Park site and the neighbouring Edinburgh Place would be primarily developed into at-grade POS and pedestrian walkway. Separately, two additional areas at the northern and southeastern peripheries of Site 3 would be converted into at-grade POS by the developer. The POS to the north between the site and the Central Piers would replace the existing transport facilities at Man Kwong Street to form part of the future waterfront promenade. The existing coach bays, taxi stand and public loading/unloading bay would be reprovisioned to north of Site 3. Certain sections of Man Kwong Street concerned would be closed only upon completion of the reprovisioning of relevant transport facili-ties. The southeastern POS should be well integrated with the piazza in front of the City Hall and the City Gallery. The relevant sections of Edinburgh Place would be closed upon completion of the Site 3 development to the north of Lung Wo Road, and commencement of the construction at the part south of Lung Wo Road.

60. She said that the Administration would consider Members’ views on the above pro-posals, and made suitable amendments to the alignment of the proposed pedestrian links, which would then be gazetted in accordance with the provisions of the Roads (Works, Use and Compensation) Ordinance.

61. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr KAM Nai-wai asked the DEVB how to ensure that the pedestrian access would be open to the public round the clock and would not be occupied by

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business operators for commercial use. He also asked whether travelators would be provided at the temporary footbridge to facilitate the public to ac-cess from Central to the piers.

b. Ms CHENG Lai-king asked whether the site of the existing General Post Of-fice (GPO) would be sold to the developer in one go, and what the vacant land off the Statue Square would be used for. She asked whether the pedestrian deck was to be open round the clock, and whether the existing footbridge would be demolished gradually for construction of a new temporary foot-bridge to link up the Jardine House. She asked how long it would take for this construction plan to complete, and whether there would be shops operat-ing at the side of the pedestrian walkway. She proposed to add travelators there.

c. Mr NG Siu-hong opposed the demolition of the GPO, which should be re-tained alongside optimisation of pedestrian facilities. He said that, upon the demolition of the GPO, the new commercial building to be developed at the same site of the existing GPO would adversely affect the current landscape and building density in Central. Having pointed out that many accesses would be privately managed in the development, he asked whether there would be many more restrictions imposed by private management on these ac-cesses, such as prohibiting street performances and undermining local activi-ties.

d. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked why conceptual design and details about demolition of footbridge were not provided. He asked about the re-provisioning of the car park after demolishing the City Hall. He opined that the current project could still be carried out without demolishing the General Post Office.

e. Mr CHAN Hok-fung said that the footbridge at IFC was currently the only means for the public to access to the Central piers. The footbridge was of high patronage with street hawker operations. He asked the DEVB what short-term measures could be adopted to improve the problem of pedestrian flow at the said footbridge. He did not agree to the construction of the at-grade connection. He said that the vehicular flow in Central had all along been high. Upon completion of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass, the vehicular flow in this area would be increased further. As such, at-grade pedestrian

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crossings would become obstacles to the smooth traffic flow. He suggested that pedestrian footbridges and decks should be better utilised to release the at-grade road space for use by vehicles. He hoped that the DEVB would re-view the need for at-grade connection again.

62. Miss AU Wing-yan of the DEVB responded that there were 380 parking spaces for private cars and 37 parking spaces for motorcycles in the car park at Star Ferry Pier. Having reviewed the traffic impact on and parking facilities of the district as a whole, it had proposed to relocate part of the parking spaces at the Star Ferry Pier to Site 3, and had decided to provide 325 public parking spaces and 30 motorcycle parking spaces within the entire development in future. Moreover, according to the Hong Kong Plan-ning Standards and Guidelines, about 520 ancillary parking spaces would be provided in Site 3 to support the office and retail commercial uses in future. Part of the ancillary parking spaces designated to support retail commercial facilities would generally be open for use by the public.

63. She continued to point out that the planning of the entire New Central Harbourfront had undergone a long process of study and a comprehensive two-staged public engage-ment exercise. The design concept of the final proposal had incorporated the scheme re-ceiving most public consent. The POS and pedestrian networks had met the require-ment of the harbour planning principles by providing high quality POS as well as multi-storey and convenient pedestrian walkways for public use. As provided in the land lease conditions, the developer was required to open the POS for the public round the clock. The DEVB had prepared guidelines on design and management of public open space in private developments, specifying the restrictions on the development of commercial uses within the site. She said that the existing at-grade connections would be retained in the proposed pedestrian network as far as is practicable. Elevated connections along a north-south axis would be provided to connect two existing roads. The PB also pro-posed to provide connections at different levels to link up the adjoining existing or fu-ture developments, and where the circumstances permitted, provide travelators at the pedestrian walkways. She believed that it would be more feasible to provide additional travelators on the landscaped deck. She added that the landscaped deck would replace the existing temporary footbridge in future with a view to maintaining the pedestrian connection along the north-south axis.

64. The Chairman invited second-round discussion. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

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a. Ms CHENG Lai-king asked whether it would be an open or covered land-scaped deck, when land sale of the site concerned would be conducted, and when the anticipated completion date of construction of the whole develop-ment project was.

b. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked whether the rights of use by the public would be un-desirably affected if the public space was to be managed by the private sector, and why the public space would not be managed by the Government or the fu-ture Harbourfront Authority but by the private sector instead.

c. Mr NG Siu-hong asked whether the public place would be managed exces-sively, thus prohibiting street performances or local activities. He thought that preservation of streets for public access was important to urban development. He recalled that when the relevant consultation exercise was conducted 10 years ago, it did not mention the demolition of the GPO. Therefore he op-posed the demolition of the GPO if it was implemented based on the said con-sultation.

65. Miss AU Wing-yan of the DEVB responded that there were totally eight sites in the New Central Harbourfront, each of which had different uses. Site 3 was proposed for comprehensive development mainly for office and retail commercial uses. The Govern-ment had required in the PB of Site 3 for provision of a great amount of POS. According to the Public Open Space in Private Developments Design and Management Guidelines (POSPD Guidelines), the Government stipulated that the relevant land lease had to in-clude conditions regarding POS constructed and operated by the developer who would be responsible to maintain 24-hour public access for such places. The Government hoped that the public and the relevant departments would jointly monitor whether the developer would open the relevant space to the public in accordance with the guidelines. Also provided in the guidelines was the permitted provision of non-commercial activi-ties organised thereat free of charge. In case a commercial activity was planned, the de-veloper had to submit a MLP, together with specific proposals, for application to and ap-proval by the TPB.

66. The Chairman invited third-round discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

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a. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that the DEVB had undertaken to provide in situ re-provisioning of the Star Ferry Pier, but proposed to implement the re-provi-sioning at Central Pier 10 afterwards. Besides, he had tried to rent a venue under the projects of Energizing Kowloon East, but was refused by the DEVB on grounds of monetary transaction involved. He explained that it was neces-sary to recover the cost even if an activity was non-commercial by nature. He suggested that the public space in the development be managed by the future Harbourfront Authority.

b. Mr NG Siu-hong asked whether public demonstration, procession or petition could be held in the public space concerned, and whether there would be ex-cessive restrictions imposed due to private management of the place.

67. Miss AU Wing-yan of the DEVB responded that, as regards venue hiring in Kowloon East raised by Mr YIP Kam-lung, the Energizing Kowloon East Office would give its reply separately after the meeting. As regards the works and road closure ar-rangements relating to the pedestrian network, it would arrange for gazettal in accor-dance with the requirements of the Roads (Works, Use and Compensation) Ordinance after consulting the C&WDC. Upon completion of the relevant procedures, the Govern-ment would put Site 3 on the market as appropriate. She supplemented that the POSPD Guidelines were applicable to the newly built private commercial and residential projects, the arrangements of which were just the same as that of Site 3.

68. The Chairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 10: Concern over the Road Safety and Traffic Congestion Problems caused by Heavy Vehicles Travelling on Borrett Road(C&W TTC Paper No. 9/2017) (6:39 pm – 6:46 pm)

69. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr LEUNG King-yue pointed out that Borrett Road was a narrow road having frequent access of heavy vehicles. The traffic on this road was chaotic espe-cially during the two periods before and after school. He asked the TD and HyD what improvement measures could be used. He said that he had con-ducted site visit and understood that widening of Borrett Road was not feasi-

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ble. He hoped that the HyD and TD would study how to solve the problem. He continued to point out that there were often gravel on the road, easily caus-ing traffic accidents of heavy vehicles. These vehicles would also squash the gravel up to vehicles travelling in the rear of them. He hoped that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) could help clean up the gravel on the road. He asked the Police about the number of tickets issued against vehicles contravening the weight limit and time limit of during access on Borrett Road. As reflected in the complaints lodged by some members of the public, some heavy vehicles travelling on Borrett Road were in breach of the weight and time limits. He queried whether the Police were ineffective in law enforcement, thus attracting some drivers of heavy vehicles to cut corners by contravening the time limit of accessing to and from Borrett Road. He re-quested the Police to step up their patrol and inspection on Borrett Road.

70. Mr WAN Wai- k eung , Officer-in-Charge of the District Traffic Team (Central Dis-trict) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) said that the Police was of grave concern about the safety of students. Recently, the Police had interviewed school representa-tives, school bus operators and TD to discuss on parking of school buses and coordina-tion by the Police to facilitate smooth traffic. Therefore the Police would implement traffic control on a school day at two fixed time slots near the schools, particularly on Borrett Road. In the past three months, the Police had received 24 complaints against school buses for violating road traffic during the period after school. He added that if the Police had identified potential danger that would be caused by gravel on the road, it would pro-actively request the FEHD to clean up the road to prevent traffic accidents. If heavy vehicles were found on Borrett Road at the time the Police was implementing traffic control, police officers would definitely question the motorists whether the vehi-cles were issued with the relevant permits by the TD. Otherwise, they would take pros-ecution action against such motorists. Police would also patrol and inspect the said site irregularly.

71. Ms CHO Man-yee , Principal Technical Officer (Traffic)/Southern and Peak of the TD, said that the TD had implemented a weight restriction on vehicles over 4 tonnes (except buses) on Borrett Road. The measure could minimise the use of Borrett Road by heavy vehicles.

72. Mr LEUNG King-yue added that if any vehicle was issued a permit by the TD but having violating the conditions of the permit, he hoped that the TD would consider re-voking such permit.

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73. Ms CHO Man-yee of the TD said that the TD would have closer liaison with the Police for strengthening the relevant prosecution action. If motorists were found to have breached the stipulation of the permit, such cases could be referred to the TD for follow up.

74. Mr WAN Wai- k eung of the HKPF said that the Police would strengthen the man-power for its rigorous enforcement action on Borrett Road.

75. The C hairman hoped that the Police would step up law enforcement and closely monitor the situation of Borrett Road. The C hairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 11: Request to Improve the Service of Bus route no. 26(C&W TTC Paper No. 10/2017)(6:46 pm – 6:54 pm)

76. Th e Chairman invited discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr KAM Nai-wai pointed out that, as mentioned in the reply given by the TD, some trips of the bus route failed to provide service on time according to the schedule. He asked the TD about the number of lost trips and whether it could provide accurate data on this. He asked whether field inspection would be conducted in the afternoon because the incident mentioned in a complaint he received occurred in the afternoon. He also asked which month in 2018 the real time bus arrival information system would be available and whether dis-play panels showing real time information would be installed at the bus stops.

77. Mr LEUNG Kwok-man , Senior Transport Officer/Central and Western of the TD, responded that the TD would monitor the service level of the bus routes by means of field investigation and inspection from time to time. In the recent investigation con-ducted in the morning peak hours, it was found that the frequency of NWFB Route 26 was unstable. The TD would continue to monitor the situation of lost trip. If individual frequencies were found to be unpunctual in providing services, the TD would conduct field investigation at different time slots. The investigation conducted by the TD in the morning peak hours in the past three months revealed that lost trips of the said route oc-curred in two days, i.e. 2 times on one day and 3 times on the other. In this connection,

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the TD had asked the bus company to explain why lost trips took place, and required it to propose improvement measures. The bus company replied that the instability in fre-quency was mainly caused by traffic congestion along the routing of this route.

78. Mr Kevin LI , Public Affairs Manager of the CTB/NWFB, said that according to the operating record, the departure of buses operating Route 26 was largely on schedule. However, as the routing of Route 26 included the busy road sections or districts such as Hennessy Road, Queensway and the Central and other busy sections, together with the special occasions such as the Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo and Lunar New Year Fair held in the Victoria Park, the frequency might be affected by traffic conges-tion. The bus company would continue observing the frequency performance of the bus route, and make timely frequency adjustment as appropriate. He continued that the NWFB and CTB would provide real time arrival time enquiry service for all of their routes in 2018. As preparation of the new system was underway, they would announce any new progress once available. According to the planning of the NWFB and CTB, they would install the real time bus arrival information display panels in more than 200 bus stops provided with cover and power supply after the real time bus arrival informa-tion system for all their bus routes was completed. The other determinants of installing such display panel included bus stops used for boarding, bus stops having a large num-ber of waiting passengers, and geographical feasibility.

79. Th e Chairman invited second-round discussion. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Mr KAM Nai-wai pointed out that as there was only one bus route that would pass through Hollywood Road, lost trips of bus service would lead to a de-crease in passenger volume. He opined that 2 to 3 lost trips in the peak hours was unacceptable, and hoped that the TD would continue to monitor such situ-ation, and conduct site investigation regularly to see if lost trips of the route continued to occur.

80. The Chairman requested the TD to continue monitoring the service level of the bus route.

81. Mr LEUNG Kwok-man , Senior Transport Officer/Central and Western of the TD, added that it would continue to carry out investigation and inspection at different time slots to monitor the service level of the bus route.

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82. Mr Roger MA , Operations Manager of the NWFB, added that according to the op-erating record, the service level of Route 26 was not bad. He pointed out that even if the departure of buses operating Route 26, being a route of longer routing, from the bus ter-minal was on schedule, the journey time between two trips might still vary due to road conditions, causing difference in time interval of two trips. He said that the bus com-pany would continue to monitor the bus service of Route 26.

83. The Chairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

Item 12: Elimination of Traffic Hazards(C&W TTC Paper No. 11/2017) (6:54 pm – 7:08 pm)

84. The Chairman said that a fatal traffic accident occurred near Harbour Building in February 2016. He said that many pedestrians would pass through the refuse collection point concerned every day, and the situation was dangerous. The Police was also con-cerned about the safety problem. He asked the TD what improvements could be adopted to enhance the road safety at the said site.

85. Ms LOU Ching-yee , Engineer/Central and Western 1 of the TD, said that according to the data provided by the FEHD, the pedestrian flow accessing to and from the refuse collection point in Man Kat Street across Connaught Road Central at peak hour was 60 or so. There was a footbridge retrofitted with an elevator on Connaught Road Central near the refuse collection point in Man Kat Street. The public might cross Connaught Road Central safely with this footbridge. From the traffic perspective, it was unneces-sary to provide an additional at-grade pedestrian crossing. However, as the C&WDC, FEHD and HKPF had recommended the addition of pedestrian crossing facilities on Connaught Road Central to facilitate people pushing handcarts to the said refuse collec-tion point, the TD made a preliminary improvement proposal in response after balancing the traffic at the said site and the pedestrian demand. A signal-controlled pedestrian crossing was proposed at the junction of Connaught Road Central and Rumsey Street. This proposal would affect and delay the traffic on Connaught Road Central, and people had to make a detour for access. Moreover, there was a number of environmental con-straints at that section of Connaught Road Central, and the TD was making arrangement for the HyD to conduct excavation for test pit to check the underground public facilities installed at the relevant site so as to examine the feasibility of the preliminary proposal.

86. Mr L O Man-chun , Senior Inspector of Police (Road Management Office)(Enforce-

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ment and Control Division)(Traffic HK Island) of the HKPF, said that the Police did not object to the proposal initially. The Police would continue to keep a close watch on the situation of jaywalking by the public at the said site after completion of the works. If improvement was not seen, it might negotiate with the FEHD for prohibiting pedestrians accessing to the refuse collection point with handcarts. Only refuse collection vehicles were allowed to travel to and from the refuse collection point by then. However, a new refuse collection point had to be identified to meet the need of the public in this respect.

87. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze , DO(C&W), supplemented that addition of a pedestrian crossing on Connaught Road Central would adversely affect the traffic at the said site. Besides, it might obstruct the sightline of pedestrians, making them less alert of the ap-proaching traffic and causing potential hazard. She suggested that the details could be discussed in depth at the meeting of District Management Committee.

88. Mr HUI Kar-nung , Chief Health Inspector 1 of the FEHD, responded that the FEHD had agreed to the proposal in its reply given to the TD.

89. Th e Chairman invited discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ com-ments were as follows:

a. Mr CHAN Hok-fung thought that there were merits to the TD’s proposal, but worried that the refuse collectors pushing heavy handcarts would be unwilling to make a detour for using the new pedestrian crossing. For convenience’s sake, they might keep on crossing the road directly without using it.

b. Ms CHENG Lai-king asked if the pedestrian crossing was to be provided on level ground.

c. Mr KAM Nai-wai shared the views of Mr CHAN Hok-fung. He indicated that provision of a pedestrian crossing on Connaught Road Central would ad-versely affect the traffic flow at the said site. However, he agreed to imple-ment the proposal in the absence of a better alternative. If the new crossing failed to serve its function, further studies would be required to address the problem.

d. Mr YEUNG Hoi-wing said that despite the very high vehicular flow on Con-naught Road Central, the safety of the public was more important than this. He hoped that the TD would assess whether the proposal would seriously af-fect the traffic flow on Connaught Road Central. He recommended relocation

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of the refuse collection point when necessary.

e. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that some people might choose jaywalking for conve-nience’s sake, but it was still the responsibility of the Government to provide a safe pedestrian crossing for members of the public, even if users had to make a detour for using the proposed crossing. He considered it unnecessary to relo-cate the refuse collection point. Instead, public education for compliance with traffic rules and regulations had to be promoted.

f. Mr YIP Wing-shing said that it was difficult to provide a crossing facility for pedestrians to cross Connaught Road Central directly. He said that although the current proposal might not be the best one, but it could be implemented on a trial basis for the safety of the public.

90. DO(C&W) agreed to Members’ comments in that some people might prefer the easy way of crossing the road by jaywalking. However, under the new proposal, the public could cross the road safely by simply walking forward for a short distance. The proposal was a relatively viable solution. She undertook to enhance public education on road safety with focus on crossing the road.

91. The Chairman said that road safety was of the utmost importance. He hoped that FEHD would distribute leaflets promoting the awareness of road safety to refuse col-lectors.

92. Mr YIP Kam-lung suggested that push-button traffic light be installed at the said site. By doing so, the pedestrian green time of traffic light would be actuated by pedes-trians when necessary. He opined that this could reduce the impact on vehicular traffic.

93. Ms LOU Ching-yee of the TD said that there were a number of restrictions at the actual site environment on Connaught Road Central such as entrance/exit of car park, raised central divider, and pillars of flyover, etc. All these factors would affect the site selection of providing the signal-controlled pedestrian crossing. Minimising the impact on the traffic was also its concern. The proposed location therefore was a more desir-able one. The preliminary proposal of traffic light arrangement would also tie in with the period of vehicle halting on Connaught Road Central, thus reducing the impact on the road traffic there. But she added that more time was needed to study the proposed crossing.

Item 13: Concern over the Fire Incident on an MTR Train

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(C&W TTC Paper No. 12/2017)(7:08 pm - 7:29 pm)

94. Th e Chairman invited discussion on the paper. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Mr CHAN Hok-fung commended the HKPF, Fire Services Department (FSD) and MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL) for making appropriate arrangement and expeditiously solving the problem that day. But information dissemina-tion was rather confusing that day. He hoped that the departments and the MTRCL could study how to disseminate accurate information lest the emer-gency rescue should be adversely affected by rumor. Understanding that the MTRCL would organise the relevant drillings without participation by the public, he asked the FSD whether public participation in such drillings was re-quired because it might ensure that both passengers and MTR staff were capa-ble to handle emergency more skillfully.

b. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that it was an unfortunate accident which, however, re-vealed the inadequate knowledge of MTR staff and the public about fire pre-vention and safety measures. He said that a MTR staff even forgot to pull out the safety pin when using the fire extinguisher, as shown in a video clip. He asked about the training of staff provided by MTRCL in this respect, and whether the contingency measures would be disclosed in a more open and transparent manner. He did not agree to the proposed installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in each MTR train compartment because it was un-necessary to do so and would involve issues about privacy.

c. Ms CHENG Lai-king suggested that MTRCL should invite passengers to par-ticipate in fire drills.

95. The Chairman suggested that the MTRCL should enhance the fire service equip-ment, such as automatic sprinklers on platforms. He also recommended enhanced staff training and drillings to cope with emergency. Although he requested the Police to strengthen the patrol in the MTR District, he did not agree to implement security check procedures in the MTR stations. He enquired whether the Police and the MTRCL would step up spot check of suspects inside the stations for deterrence. He observed that there was an increase of police officers patrolling at the MTR stations after the inci-dent.

96. Ms Dorothy LAU , Assistant Public Relations Manager – External Affairs of the

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MTRCL, said that she had taken note of and thanked for Members’ comments. She stressed that safety was the most important factor of consideration and most important task to achieve by the MTRCL regarding service provision. She said that when an acci-dent occurred in any public transportation system, the most important thing was to evac-uate passengers rapidly, effectively, orderly and safely. The MTRCL had always been maintaining close liaison with the Police. When there was an emergency, the MTRCL would also notify the Police immediately for mutual coordination and follow up. In normal times, the MTRCL would prepare contingency plans to cope with various kinds of emergency, and hold drillings regularly. Therefore the MTRCL could evacuate pas-sengers rapidly and orderly in this incident so as to minimise the negative impact.

97. Mr Winson TSE , Operations Manager - Island Line and Tseung Kwan O Line of the MTRCL, said that the captain of an MTR train of Tsuen Wan Line travelling from Admiralty Station to Tsim Sha Tsui Station (TST Station) learnt that smoke was found inside a train compartment during journey around 7 pm in the evening of 10 February 2017. The train captain immediately notified the operations control centre according to the established procedure and continued to drive the train to TST Station. At the same time, he notified passengers through the public address system in the train compart-ments. The operations control centre immediately notified the MTR station concerned, and subsequently the Police and FSD. The whole process in response to the emergency was conducted promptly. He continued that, as shown in the video recorded by the CCTV, the staff of the TST Station had reached the platform and got prepared for action before the train arrived at the station. Upon arrival of the train, the staff immediately ar-ranged for the passengers to leave the compartments. Finally, some passengers and staff put out the fire with fire extinguishers. The evacuation arrangements were also an-nounced at the platforms and concourse through the display panels and public address system in the station. Also shown in the video recorded by the CCTV, the evacuation was carried out in good order in general. Within a few minutes, most of the passengers had left the platform level. The passengers remaining in the platform out of their own will also, under the advice, left the platform level shortly afterwards.

98. He added that the MTRCL had prepared the operational manual and safety code covering various kinds of incidents, including the emergency procedures during fire. MTR staff was well acquainted with these emergency code and procedures. In case an emergency occurred unfortunately, MTR staff would activate different contingency pro-cedures according to the nature or seriousness of an incident. The train captain and staff of the station concerned would maintain close communication with the operations con-trol centre, which would be responsible for coordination, and would deploy trains or

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manpower as appropriate. The MTRCL would also give prompt notification to the rele-vant government departments as soon as possible, such as the TD, Electrical and Me-chanical Services Department, HKPF and FSD. The MTRCL would provide regular training for the staff. The course structure of the induction training of the staff working in stations and some refresher courses included fire services training, evacuation of sta-tion and use of fire extinguishers, etc. Every year, the MTRCL, together with the HKPF and FSD, would conduct at least 12 emergency exercises to test the evacuation and emergency procedures in response to simulated emergency or major accidents. The lat-est large-scale exercise was held in November 2016, having a total number of 2 000 par-ticipants, including train captains, station staff and the public. The MTRCL would fur-ther strengthen or intensify the relevant exercise as appropriate. As regards the unskill-ful use of fire extinguisher by an MTR staff on the day of the incident, he explained that when the staff received the fire extinguisher, it was very smoky inside the compartment. As such, he had to step back to a place where he could clearly see the fire extinguisher, pull out the safety pin and help put out the fire. He added that the MTR compartments were constructed with fire retardant materials and equipped with various kinds of safety devices, including fire extinguishers, ventilation windows, emergency telecommunica-tion system with train captains, public announcement system and emergency exits, etc. The platforms were also provided with fire extinguishers, fire service system and public announcement system, etc.

99. Ms Dorothy LAU , Assistant Public Relations Manager – External Affairs of the MTRCL, added that the MTRCL had disseminated the relevant information to passen-gers and members of the public through various channels that day. After the incident was identified, the captain of the train involved had given early notification to passen-gers through the public announcement system, asking them to immediately leave the compartments when arriving at the TST Station. Upon arrival, public announcement was also made in TST Station, clearly indicating that the train concerned would not pro-vide service for passengers anymore. After the train had arrived at the station, the sta-tion staff notified the passengers through the public announcement system and display panels that an emergency had occurred. Staff at the concourse and platforms also in-structed the passengers to leave the station. At the same time, the MTRCL immediately delivered message about the operational matter to the passengers through the application of mobile phones, notifying passengers that there was an emergency at TST Station and other MTR trains would not stop at the station concerned.

100. She said that the MTRCL had been promoting public education on safety. For ex-ample, it had published a “Travel Safely Everyday in the MTR” booklet to provide in-

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formation to passengers on the safety guide of using MTR facilities guidelines and in-formation on emergency escape. Passenger could obtain the booklet at MTR stations or download from the website of MTRCL. She continued that the MTRCL had adopted various measures to improve and enhance public education and incident handling since the fire accident occurred on a train in 2004. It also invited the public to participate in the regular exercise jointly organised by the MTRCL, Police and FSD. The MTRCL would form a higher level review committee to comprehensively examine the emer-gency response to the incident.

101. Th e Chairman invited second-round discussion. The main points of Members’ comments were as follows:

a. Mr YIP Wing-shing pointed out that the MTR Admiralty Station had a higher pedestrian flow after expansion and had physically extended deeper under the ground. In this connection, the MTRCL had to comprehensively review and optimise the contingency mechanism and enhance the awareness of the staff to cope with emergency, as well as improve the co-ordination with various Gov-ernment departments.

b. The Chairman hoped that the MTRCL would seriously and thoroughly review the existing contingency mechanism. He said that, with the ever-increasing pedestrian flow in the MTR stations, the consequences could be catastrophic in the event of an emergency occurred therein.

c. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that the public had no idea of the fire escape inside the MTR stations, especially in the MTR Admiralty Station and stations along the WIL which were constructed deep under the ground. As such, he asked what the MTRCL would do to educate passengers to access to the fire escapes in-side MTR stations.

102. Mr Winson TSE of the MTRCL responded that, in the case of emergency evacua-tion at an MTR station, the MTR staff would activate the station emergency evacuation procedures and all the relevant equipment inside the station would function automati-cally in a coordinating manner, including flashing of the “Exit” signs, broadcasting of evacuation message through display panels and public address system inside the station, etc. Staff of the station would also be available at scene to give instructions to facilitate evacuation of passengers from the station.

103. The Chairman thanked the guests for attending the meeting.

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Item 14: Date of the Next Meeting(7:29 pm – 7:30 pm)

104. The Chair ma n announced that a quorum was not present at the meeting. T he Chair - man declared adjournment of the meeting, and the unfinished agenda items would be dis-cussed at the next meeting.

105. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm.

The minutes were confirmed on 6 April 2017

Chairman: Mr CHAN Choi-hi, MH

Secretary: Miss HUANG Hsiao-ching

Central and Western District Council SecretariatApril 2017

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