Minutes of the 3rd meeting of Traffic and Transport Committee (T&TC) Southern District Council (SDC) (2020-2023) Date : 9 July 2020 Time : 2:30 p.m. Venue : SDC Conference Room Present: Mr LO Kin-hei (Chairman of SDC) Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN (Vice-Chairman of SDC) Mr CHAN Hin-chung (Chairman of T&TC) Ms LI Shee-lin (Vice-Chairlady of T&TC) Mr CHAN Ping-yeung Ms CHAN Yan-yi Mr LAM Andrew Tak-wo Mr LAM Ho-por, Kelvin Ms LAM Yuk-chun, MH Mr Jonathan LEUNG Chun Mr PANG Cheuk-kei, Michael Mr POON Ping-hong Mr TSUI Yuen-wa Mr WONG Yui-hei, Angus Mr YIM Chun-ho Mr YU Chun-hei, James Miss YUEN Ka-wai, Tiffany Secretary: Miss LAU Wing-yu, Christy Executive Officer (District Council) 3, Southern District Office, Home Affairs Department 1 In Attendance: Miss CHENG Wai-sum, Sum District Officer (Southern) (Acting), Home Affairs Department Mr HON Cho-yiu, Kenneth Senior Transport Officer/Southern, Transport Department Mr LO Chun-hong, Dennis Senior Transport Officer/Housing and Projects, Transport Department Miss CHUNG Wai-ying, Tracy Transport Officer/Southern 1, Transport Department Mr WONG Chi-yeung Transport Officers/Southern 2, Transport Department Mr HUNG Tsz-hin Engineer/Southern 1, Transport Department Mr LEUNG See-yuen, Gary Engineer/Southern 2, Transport Department Mr LEE Chun-yeung, Paul District Engineer, South West, Highways Department Mr HO Chun-hin District Operations Officer (Western District), Hong Kong Police Force Mr YONG Kwok-chung Officer-in-charge, District Traffic Team (Western), Hong Kong Police Force Mr Kevin LI Public Affairs Manager, Citybus / NWFB Ltd Mr Albert LEUNG Operations Manager, NWFB Ltd for Mr Philip WONG Operations Manager (Dept. One), Citybus agenda Ltd item 2 Ms YEUNG Lee-wah, Lilian Public Relations Manager-External Affairs, MTR Corporation Mr YAU Wai-fu, William Senior Landscape Architect/VM(U&Is), Highways Department for Mr AU YEUNG Wai-ming Deputy District Leisure Manager (District agenda Support) Southern, item 3 Leisure and Cultural Services Department Ms WAI Mei-ling Leisure Manager (Tree), Hong Kong West, Leisure and Cultural Services Department 2 Mr FONG Chi-hang, Colin Senior Project Manager 424, Architectural Services Department Ms Louisa Y.Y. TSANG Associate Director, MVA Asia Limited Mrs Irene CHENG Senior Manager (Capital Projects), Hospital Authority Ms Carmen CHAN Manager (Capital Projects), Hospital Authority for Dr K.H. CHAN Chief Manager, Planning and agenda Commissioning, Hong Kong West Cluster, item 4 Hospital Authority Ms Pinky L.K. MAK Senior Hospital Manager (Planning & Commissioning Section), Queen Mary Hospital Ms Mabel KWONG Public and Community Relations Officer, Hong Kong West Cluster, Hospital Authority Mr TUNG Chun-yin Senior Engineer/Survey and Projects, for Transport Department agenda Mr SO Wing-kin Engineer/Projects 3, Transport Department item 6 Opening Remarks: The Chairman said that in view of the latest situation of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), this meeting was not open to the public in order to reduce the risk of crowd gathering. Members and media were advised to bring their own masks and water. Before entering the venue, all persons were subject to checking of body temperature with the assistance of the staff of Southern District Office, and were required to complete a health declaration form and declare whether he/she was under the 14-day compulsory quarantine. The Chairman reminded members to speak as concisely as possible and government representatives need not repeat the written replies in their response, so that the meeting might end by the estimated time, i.e. 5:40 p.m. 2. The Chairman welcomed members and the following regular government representatives to the meeting: 3 (a) Mr HON Cho-yiu, Kenneth and Mr LO Chun-hong, Dennis, Senior Transport Officers of the Transport Department (TD); (b) Miss CHUNG Wai-ying, Tracy and Mr WONG Chi-yeung, Transport Officers of TD; (c) Mr HUNG Tsz-hin and Mr LEUNG See-yuen, Gary, Engineers of TD; (d) Mr LEE Chun-yeung, Paul, District Engineer of the Highways Department (HyD); (e) Mr HO Chun-hin, District Operations Officer (Western District) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF); and (f) Mr YONG Kwok-chung, Officer-in-charge, District Traffic Team (Western) of HKPF. 3. The Chairman suggested that each member be allotted a maximum of two three-minute slots to speak in respect of each agenda item. Members agreed to this arrangement. Agenda Item 1: Confirmation of the Minutes of the 2nd T&TC Meeting Held on 14 May 2020 (Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN joined the meeting at 2:35 p.m.) 4. The Chairman said that prior to the meeting, the above draft minutes of the meeting in Chinese and English had been circulated to members for comments. 5. The minutes of the 2nd T&TC meeting in Chinese and English were confirmed by the Committee. Agenda Item 2: Public Transport Services and Traffic Situation in the Southern District (Include agenda items on “Resumption of Public Transport Frequency after Subsiding of Wuhan Pneumonia Epidemic” and “Concern over Congestion of the Northbound Lane of Aberdeen Tunnel during Weekends” raised by Mr YU Chun-hei, James and Mr LAM Ho-por, Kelvin) 4 (TTC Paper No. 20/2020) (Mr Jonathan LEUNG Chun and Mr PANG Cheuk-kei, Michael joined the meeting at 2:34 p.m. and 3:01 p.m., respectively.) 6. The Chairman welcomed the following representatives to the meeting: (a) Mr Kevin LI, Public Affairs Manager of Citybus / NWFB Ltd; (b) Mr Albert LEUNG, Operations Manager of NWFB Ltd; (c) Mr Philip WONG, Operations Manager (Dept. One) of Citybus Ltd; and (d) Ms Lilian YEUNG, Public Relations Manager-External Affairs of MTR Corporation (MTRC). 7. The Chairman invited Mr YU Chun-hei, James and Mr LAM Ho-por, Kelvin to briefly introduce the agenda item. 8. Mr LAM Ho-por, Kelvin briefed members on the agenda item as follows: (a) given the easing trend of the epidemic, the usage of roads had been rising recently. There was traffic congestion at the northbound lane (Wan Chai bound) of Aberdeen Tunnel again, and the problem became particularly serious on Saturdays at around noon time; (b) the traffic congestion at Aberdeen Tunnel during weekends was mainly attributed to the parking concessions introduced by Times Square in Causeway Bay, which had resulted in a large number of private cars waiting for their turn to enter the car park. These cars had greatly obstructed the vehicular traffic on the neighbouring roads of the shopping centre. Consequently, the traffic queue tailed back to Aberdeen Tunnel, and the traffic congestion had significantly increased the commuting time of the residents in the Southern District; (c) for example, the normal journey time of CTB Route No. 592 was between 19 and 23 minutes. But owing to traffic congestion in Aberdeen Tunnel, the journey time had increased to around 40 minutes. Many residents of South Horizons had reported to him the problem of prolonged waiting time; and 5 (d) Aberdeen Tunnel was the main access road of Southern District residents. He enquired how the Transport Department (TD) would tackle the problem of traffic queue in Wan Chai District tailing back to Aberdeen Tunnel and whether TD had deployed staff to discuss any improvement options with the representatives of Times Square. 9. Mr YU Chun-hei, James said that the Committee had requested the various public transport operators to provide the criteria for frequency adjustments under the epidemic for members’ reference at a previous meeting, but had not received any response yet. While he understood that the public transport operators needed to reduce frequency in view of the decreased patronage and limited resources, he hoped that the operators could give a clear account of the criteria for frequency adjustments. 10. The Chairman enquired whether the representatives of TD, the bus companies and MTRC had any supplementary response in addition to the written replies. 11. Mr Kenneth HON said that TD had followed up the situation of CTB Route No. 592 and found that the frequency of that route during peak hours was normal in the latter half of June. Neither was there any lost trip. The bus companies had now resumed the normal frequencies of most bus routes and would only adjust the frequencies of some routes with low usage after 9 p.m. 12. The Chairman invited members to raise comments and enquiries. 13. A number of members raised enquiries and comments on the subject, with details summarised as follows: (a) Mr LAM Ho-por, Kelvin said that the parking concessions offered by Times Square had attracted a large number of motorists. When the parking spaces were fully occupied, some motorists would park their vehicles at the entry/exit point of the car park. Consequently, there was traffic congestion and the traffic queue tailed back to Aberdeen Tunnel. He advised TD to liaise with Times Square and adopt corresponding measures to improve the local traffic; 6 (b) Mr YU Chun-hei, James enquired whether TD and the various public transport operators would consider reducing frequencies again in view of the unstable situation of the epidemic. He once again requested the operators to provide the criteria for frequency adjustments for members’ reference; (c) Mr WONG Yui-hei, Angus said that the parking concessions offered by Times Square had great impacts on the traffic of the neighbouring roads. Even though some staff members of the shopping centre and police officers had asked the motorists to leave, some motorists continued to park their vehicles at the roads adjacent to the shopping centre. He enquired whether TD would review the parking concessions and discuss an improvement option with the representatives of Times Square; (d) Ms LAM Yuk-chun, MH said some residents had reported to her the unstable frequency of CTB Route No.