[h=2]Hong Kong has the best public transport system[/h]
October 10th, 2012 |
Author: Contributions
HK has the best public transport system that I have seen anywhere. Its so seamlessly integrated that you dont need to drive at all.
Taxis are easily available — buses from airport straight to major hotels for a fraction of the taxi fare; the massive Kowloon Station hub from where travelers can get connected to major hotels — via bus for FREE!(and vice versa), and even check-in for flights out of HK!
Compare this to our ruddy train ride from airport to city with some 20 stops, and 10 to 20 mins waiting for train switch at Tanah Merah station, lugging along the bags, then from there to the Interchange at City Hall, from where there is no seamless connectivity to hotels for travelers.
We also have a crying need for a hub for outstation bus travel but all pleas from the Coach Operators Association seem to be falling on deaf ears. Instead we have the shoddy & stinking Beach Rd experience at Golden Mile, another bus center in WTC and yet other individual bus pick up points spread around the Island. For anyone wanting to travel north can you imagine his confusion! Poor travelers.
HK provides FREE connection on coaches to major hotels once you get off the train from the airport at Kowloon Terminal, and vice versa. What a convenience and money saver!
Hope our Minister who was there recently to check our this wonderful network himself will benefit from this experience.
Finally, the big difference is that the HK Metro is highly profitable even with low fares because they decided early on to own the land around the stations on the MTR line and developed commercial real estate on them, giving rise to strong annuity-based income, with strong balance sheet This accounts for their well-tuned maintenance regime because cost is not an issue.
In our case we simply sold off prime real estate to make quick capital gains, and because of relatively low operating revenues, and pressure to pay dividends to shareholders, we have not kept up maintenance of the lines like HK, and the result is today before us!
.
Ikarus
.
Taxis are easily available — buses from airport straight to major hotels for a fraction of the taxi fare; the massive Kowloon Station hub from where travelers can get connected to major hotels — via bus for FREE!(and vice versa), and even check-in for flights out of HK!
Compare this to our ruddy train ride from airport to city with some 20 stops, and 10 to 20 mins waiting for train switch at Tanah Merah station, lugging along the bags, then from there to the Interchange at City Hall, from where there is no seamless connectivity to hotels for travelers.
We also have a crying need for a hub for outstation bus travel but all pleas from the Coach Operators Association seem to be falling on deaf ears. Instead we have the shoddy & stinking Beach Rd experience at Golden Mile, another bus center in WTC and yet other individual bus pick up points spread around the Island. For anyone wanting to travel north can you imagine his confusion! Poor travelers.
HK provides FREE connection on coaches to major hotels once you get off the train from the airport at Kowloon Terminal, and vice versa. What a convenience and money saver!
Hope our Minister who was there recently to check our this wonderful network himself will benefit from this experience.
Finally, the big difference is that the HK Metro is highly profitable even with low fares because they decided early on to own the land around the stations on the MTR line and developed commercial real estate on them, giving rise to strong annuity-based income, with strong balance sheet This accounts for their well-tuned maintenance regime because cost is not an issue.
In our case we simply sold off prime real estate to make quick capital gains, and because of relatively low operating revenues, and pressure to pay dividends to shareholders, we have not kept up maintenance of the lines like HK, and the result is today before us!
.
Ikarus
.
