New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) was the third-largest bus operator in Hong Kong. Established by NWS Holdings and FirstGroup in September 1998,it took over 88 China Motor Bus services in Hong Kong Island. From 2020 until its merger with Citybus in 2023,it was a subsidiary of Bravo Transport,the owner of Citybus. The NWFB brand was retired on 1 July 2023 with operations merged into Citybus.
Before NWFB was established,franchised bus service in Hong Kong Island was provided by China Motor Bus (CMB) (franchisee since 1933) and Citybus (franchisee since 1991). In the early 1990s,the service levels of CMB were in decline. Therefore,the Government of Hong Kong started to introduce new competitors by transferring the franchise of CMB routes to other companies. As a result,Citybus became the second franchisee of the bus service on Hong Kong Island. Over 40 routes were transferred between 1991 and 1995.[1] In spite of the loss of many profitable routes,the service of CMB did not show any significant improvement.[citation needed]
Bidding for franchise
In February 1998,the government announced the franchise for all 140 routes operated by CMB would not be reviewed when it expired 31 August that year. Eighty-eight of the routes were placed to open tender,12 routes were transferred directly to Citybus,one cross-harbour route to Kowloon Motor Bus,and the remaining routes were cancelled.[2][3]
NWS Holdings was considered a dark horse as it was the only bidder with no local bus operation experience. However,NWS Holdings was awarded a replacement franchise in March 1998 with commitments of new facilities,improved service standards and employment of CMB staff. During the handover in mid-1998,NWFB faced a lot of difficulties since CMB was reluctant to cooperate. NWFB commenced operating at midnight on 1 September 1998 after a series of negotiations and with help from the government. However NWFB had already started its operation of other non-overnight routes at midnight as CMB refused to operate after that time.[6][7]
Start of operations
NWFB took over 88 bus routes on 1 September 1998,with the fleet mostly were 710 step-entrance buses. In order to compete with Citybus and KMB,NWFB has purchased 500 new low-floor buses,out of which 76 are Dennis Dart SLF and the remaining are either Dennis Tridents or Volvo B10TLs and 50 buses commenced operations immediately. Step-entrance buses had the NWFB logo applied over the CMB logos and blue patches over the CMB corporate flag,before repainting it to NWFB livery,and upgraded the floor,handrails,lighting system and seating layout. The seating layout was changed from 3+2 to 2+2,making a typical refurbished bus accommodate 10 fewer passengers than one before refurbishment.[7]
As for the older buses from CMB,they were all gradually phased out by January 2016,becoming full low-floor fleet except for two Dennis Condors (DM18 and DM22) and two Volvo Olympians (VA51 and VA54) which were transferred to Citybus before retirement. After the phasing out of all older buses from CMB,NWFB also began retirement of the first-generation low-floor fleet,and 1220 was even transferred to Citybus before retirement in 13 December 2020. Before the merger in July 2023,NWFB only focuses on second-generation low-floor fleet (e.g. Enviro500 and B9TLs).
In June 2003 fellow franchised bus operator Citybus was purchased by NWFB parent company NWS Holdings,bringing the bus services of Hong Kong Island once again under control of a single organisation. Before the acquisition,many of the two companies' competing routes overlap each other. In order to make better use of company resources,many routes were reshuffled. Redundant routes were cancelled,and Octopus card bus-bus interchange discounts were introduced between routes of both companies.[8]
In January 2004 NWFB took a 51% shareholding in Kunming New World First Bus,a joint venture established with the Kunming government to operate services to Kunming in Yunnan on 39 routes with 700 buses.[8]
Retirement of brand
Bus enthusiasts at the last NWFB trip during the early morning on 1 July 2023.
In August 2020,along with Citybus,NWFB was sold to the Bravo Transport consortium,made up of private equity firm Templewater Bravo,Hong Kong-listed investment holding company Hans Energy and Ascendal Group.[9][10][11][12]
In July 2022,Bravo Transport announced that it would be retiring the NWFB brand,with operations merged into Citybus when the next franchise commenced on 1 July 2023.[13][14] In July 2023,the brand was retired.[15]
Fleet
As at July 2022,the fleet consisted of 650 buses.[16] NWFB operated four depots at Heng Fa Chuen,Wong Chuk Hang,Tseung Kwan O and West Kowloon.[17]
NWFB's officially last Dennis Condor non air-conditioned bus retired in August 2002
New World First Bus stop in Sunshine City Plaza, Ma On Shan, it is served by the exclusive NWFB Eastern Harbour Tunnel route 682
Before the merger with Citybus, New World First Bus had 168 routes. Triple digit routes beginning with 5 were originally air-conditioned only bus routes in the 1990s, now all these were rationalised and only three bus services remains (511, 592 and 595). In October 2009, NWFB commenced operating through its Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus subsidiary.[17]
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