Bus connection vital for ferries
2010-10-01 SCMP | EDT8 | EDT
South China Morning Post

I refer to the letter by Tam Siu-loom (Sinking feeling, September 28).

All cross-harbour ferry services are losing passengers to road and railway transport as a result of poor connections to piers, which is largely the fault of planners and the government.

One example of such a planning failure is the Hung Hom ferry pier. It used to be located next to the Hung Hom railway station. It took commuters only one or two minutes to walk to the ferry pier after they got off the train.

However, after the pier was moved to its current location, a good 20-minute walk from the train station, the number of passengers dropped by 40 per cent in 1991. For geographical reasons, ferries play the role of feeder transport in Hong Kong, so connectivity and accessibility of ferry piers are crucial factors that affect passengers' choice of transport.

If the government wants the Star Ferry to be self-financed, all it needs to do is to keep the bus terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier and, needless to say, consider any proposal that can help the ferry company to generate non-fare-box revenue.

Leslie Chan, chairman, Our Bus Terminal

我是回應9月28日的Tam Siu-loom”沉輪感覺”文章。

所有港內線小輪的乘客數字減少而流向路面或鐵路交通的主要原因，是因為碼頭附近的交通接駁差劣。這是很大程度上是規劃者及政府的失誤。

一個很好的例字-紅磡碼頭。昔日紅磡碼頭就設在紅磡火車站旁，下了火車的市民只要步行一至兩分鐘就可以由火車站步行至碼頭登船。

可是，當紅磡碼頭於1991年遷移至現時距火車站近20分鐘步程外的位置，天星的紅磡線乘客數字急跌了40%。因地理原因，渡輪在香港的角色為表駁交通，所以渡輪碼頭的接駁性及可達性為市民選用渡輪作交通的重要原因。

如果政府想讓天星小輪繼續可自負盈虧，只需要保留尖沙咀碼頭旁的巴士總站，除此之外，任何可協助渡輪公司開拓非票務收益的方案，也應被考慮。

尖碼之聲主席 Leslie Chan

(上次更新: 2010-10-10)