Integrated public transport in Singapore and Hong Kong

Road & Transport Research, Dec 2003 by Luk, James, Olszewski, Piotr

THE HONG KONG EXPERIENCE

Car-ownership in Hong Kong is very low at 50 cars per thousand population, and the public transport systems account for 90% of motorised trips. Table 5 shows the modal splits of different public transport systems in Hong Kong. The two major issues facing the city are road congestion and air quality. The high congestion in the road network together with good public transport systems are the key factors that keep car-ownership low in Hong Kong (Cullinane and Cullinane 2003). The Government is implementing a plan to increase the railway network from 150 km to 200 km by 2007. There is also a plan to invest more in rail such that the rail modal share increases from around 30% to 45% by 2016 (Hong Kong Government 2003).

Hong Kong has a private sector driven economy and productivity gain is achieved through competition, which goes against the ideal of integrated transport. Hong Kong has a long history of private transit operators, with many modes available to the population. Its high density provides easy physical integration and most of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations are well-integrated with activity centres and local neighbourhoods.

Apart from the implementation of the very popular Octopus integrated fare collection system since 1997, the Government has focussed on infrastructure investments to facilitate integration. The investments are in more and better modal interchanges, and extra heavy and light rail routes. Some recent projects on transport integration include (Figure 2)

* Extension of the southern terminal of the East Rail (which connects Kowloon to China in the north) by 1.6 km to facilitate interchange with the MTR station at Tsim Sha Tsui (see Figure 3);

* New crossing to China with the construction of the Eok Ma Chau Spur Line off the East Rail;

* Construction of the West Rail and better integration with the Light Rail Transit (LRT) in the west side of New Territories; and

* Construction of the Ma On Shan (medium) rail to the Sha tin Station of the East Rail.

The local regulatory authority is the Hong Kong Transport Department. It has recently initiated the Study on Coordination of Other Public Transport Services with New Railways (SCOPTS) to increase the rail modal share. The study has recommended some reductions in bus services (Yan et al. 2001) and the issue of the subsequent increase of the walk distances of current bus users needs to be addressed. Other issues are:

* Each transport mode should be well integrated with the current land-use development.

* The marginal benefit of integrated public transport in Hong Kong is not obvious and may be small.

* Better modal interchanges and information integration are the key measures that benefit the public in the local context.

* There is lack of space for park-and-ride facilities forbicycles.

From surveys reported in Cullinane and Cullinane (2003), the aspiration to own cars amongst the younger population in Hong Kong is quite high. In view of the excellent public transport services, heavy road congestion and high carparking charges, this finding provides some policy directions for Australian cities. Improving public transport services (and incorporating transport integration) is a step in the right direction. However, experiences have shown that the investment cost would be high and the effect in increasing transit modal share could be small (Luk 2003). Complementary measures to reduce car ownership and usage are necessary, e.g. high car ownership and usage costs in Singapore and limited carparking facilities and road capacities in Hong Kong. Note that both cities have extensive provision of bus lanes, which effectively increase congestion to car users and reduce delay for bus travellers.