Overnight sailings maintained under new ferry route tenders

Overnight sailings will be maintained and non-peak weekday ferries will run more often than previously proposed, the government said yesterday as it announced the second tender on four outlying ferry routes.

Lamma, Lantau and Peng Chau residents generally welcomed the concessions, but an industry source said the new tender offered less room to cut costs, which would put pressure on the operators to raise fares.

The government decided last month to retender four routes from Central - to Sok Kwu Wan and Yung Shu Wan on Lamma Island, and to Mui Wo and Peng Chau. The decision came after existing operators - New World First Ferry Services and Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry Holdings - proposed fare increases of between 30 and nearly 50 per cent.

'Fuel prices have jumped by almost 40 per cent again since the last tendering exercise,' the ferry industry source said. 'And given that the new terms are not that different from existing ones, I don't think proposed fare increases will be much lower than those proposed before.'

The Transport and Housing Bureau warned commuters that fares would rise to some degree, despite the fact that, according to a government source, the new tendering terms would allow operators on all four routes to cut 10 trips a day, saving about HK$500,000 daily.

Under the new tender, three overnight sailings to Mui Wo and Peng Chau have been kept, and non-peak-hour ferries on all four routes will be cut to once every 50 minutes, from once every 40 to 45 minutes. This compares to once every hour as proposed in the first tender.

However, except for the Mui Wo route, operators are free to use slow boats. A trip on a slow boat takes about 10 minutes longer than on a fast boat but consumes less fuel.