China Motor Bus - History

History

Ngan Shing-kwan together with Wong Yiu Nam started in business in 1924 to provide services on Kowloon Peninsula. Ngan and Wong began their transport career as rickshaw pullers on Nathan Road in the 1920s and established the company in 1933, when they received the exclusive bus franchise from the Government of Hong Kong to operate routes on Hong Kong Island.

After the Second World War, the network of CMB's routes expanded with exploding population on the island. New buses were purchased to increase ridership. Since mid-1970s, CMB buses were traditionally painted with a buff upper body and a blue lower body livery. CMB adopt the policy to improve its service during 1970s, including introducing the first type of rear-engine bus (Daimler Fleetline) and reforming the route number system. In 1976 CMB has earned over $20 million HK dollars, the highest in the company history.

With the opening of the MTR Island Line in the 1985, and CMB's reputation of outdated ethos and poor services over the years, ridership on CMB declined. On 29/30 November 1989, CMB employees started a massive strike, after broken negotiations on their pensions funds. During the strike, all CMB services on the island were halted, to the extent that the government was forced to use police vehicles to facilitate commuting to and from the Southern District. After the incident, the relationship between CMB and the government worsened, leading to the government to adopt more directive policies in respect of CMB.

Meanwhile, competitors such as Citybus had successfully lured passengers from CMB's franchised routes to their own residential routes. The establishment of route 37R as a residential route by Citybus illustrates this fact. The service provided more comfortable seats, air-conditioned fleet, and a more direct route (via Aberdeen Tunnel) from Chi Fu Fa Yuen to Central. Citybus was able to compete against CMB by charging only the fare of non-air-conditioned, uncomfortable and indirect CMB counterparts like routes 40 and 37 (which took Pok Fu Lam Road instead). The residential route was later converted into a franchise route, 37M, that still continued to be operated by Citybus.

In 1993 and 1995, the government had 26 and 14 CMB routes respectively removed and put into public tender, with Citybus taking over those routes. Citybus expanded its market of Hong Kong Island from CMB during these years, especially in the commercial areas like Central, Wanchai and Causeway Bay. More CMB passengers in these areas turned to Citybus, and CMB had more and more routes without profits. CMB started to give up its remaining bus service business from the mid-1990s, and the company eventually lost its franchise in 1998, which was taken over by New World First Bus.