page_title: History of bus transport in Hong Kong
section_title: 1990s: Interchanging when one saw the other's demise
hierarchical_section_title: History of bus transport in Hong Kong / History / 1990s: Interchanging when one saw the other's demise
caption_attribution_description: Dennis Dart SLF Plaxton Pointer, owned by New World First Bus of Hong Kong.
context_page_description: The history of bus transport in Hong Kong began with the introduction of the first bus routes in Hong Kong in the 1920s.
context_section_description: In September 1991, Citybus started to operate one franchised route on Hong Kong Island, becoming the fourth franchised bus company in Hong Kong.
  In January 1992, New Lantao Bus was acquired by Kwoon Chung Motors.
  China Motor Bus's service was being protested by the passengers since the 1980s, and was being criticised by the councillors of Legislative Council, finally CMB was forced to hand 28 routes to Citybus in 1993, and another 14 routes in 1995. In 1997 Citybus introduced several routes to replace some routes discontinued by CMB.
  In 1995, KMB introduced its last non-air-conditioned buses. Since then, all the buses introduced by the franchised bus companies were air-conditioned.
  In 1996, super low floor single-deckers were introduced in Hong Kong, Citybus introduced ten Volvo B6LE, then KMB followed by introducing 12 Dennis Dart SLF buses. Later in 1997, the first super low floor double-deckers (Dennis Trident) were also introduced by KMB and Citybus; in the following two years, different models of super low floor buses were being introduced.
  In May 1997, with the Tsing Ma Bridge coming into operation and commencement of settlement in the Tung Chung new town, Citybus and Long Win Bus (subsidiary of KMB) started to operate new franchised routes serving Tung Chung. Both of them, together with New Lantao Bus, started to operate the new airport bus services when the new Hong Kong International Airport came into operation on 6 July 1998.
  In March 1998, Citybus became the first franchised bus company to operate fully air-conditioned bus fleet.
  After China Motor Bus handed 42 routes to Citybus, the public and the government were still not satisfied, however. Finally, CMB's bus franchise was terminated on 31 August 1998, and its routes went to New World First Bus (NWFB), Citybus and KMB on 1 September 1998.
  In March 1999, Citybus was acquired by the Stagecoach Group.
  The 1990s also saw the withdrawal of Daimler/Leyland Fleetline and Leyland Victory Mark 2 buses. CMB and KMB started to withdraw their Fleetlines in the late 1980s and the last KMB Fleetline was withdrawn in 1995. All the KMB's Victories were also withdrawn in the 1990s. After New World First Bus acquired the whole CMB fleet, it also replaced the Victories and the remaining Fleetlines with new super low floor buses, the last Fleetlines and Victories were withdrawn in August 2000.
  Bus-bus interchange became a common practice since the 1990s. In 1991 bus-bus interchange was introduced for Shing Mun Tunnel routes. Later on bus-bus interchange using transfer tickets was introduced on some overnight routes and Tai Lam Tunnel routes. With the Octopus card being accepted on some franchised bus routes since 1997, the first bus-bus interchange using Octopus card was first introduced in 1999.
caption: New World First Bus Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart
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