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HK$28 to travel from Central – Causeway Bay?

From The Guardian, a story about the latest fare increases on the London Underground. The flat fare for any journey in the central zone is now £2, which at current exchange rates is HK$28. Compare that to the cost of travelling on the MTR in Hong Kong, which is much lower – for example HK$5 for Central – Causeway Bay or HK$9 for Central – TST.

In fact, most people who travel on the tube in London don’t pay the single fare because they have a Travelcard giving them unlimited journeys on buses, tubes and rail. For the central zone you pay £17 (HK$238) per week, which is equivalent to only one return trip each day on the tube, but allows you to use the other services as well.

So in fact this is a clever ploy to charge unwary visitors and casual users more, whilst keeping prices relatively low for regular users. This does happen in Hong Kong, but in a much smaller way. If you have an Octopus card you pay about 10% less and also get discounts (if you make 10 journeys on the MTR in one week you can get a free single journey ticket, and your 2nd journey the same day on the KCR is 20% off). Buses don’t normally give any discount for using Octopus, though there are some special promotions.

I have often wondered whether it would make sense to have something similar to the Travelcard in Hong Kong. I assume the reason why it is not offered is that there are some people who make very heavy use of public transport so it would be difficult to get the pricing right. Or perhaps it’s that the Travelcard was introduced in London to encourage people to use public transport and it’s felt that there is no need to do that in Hong Kong.

The Octopus card makes it quite convenient (especially on buses and mini-buses) and of course that is something that has now been copied in many other cities around the world. London’s is called the “Oyster” card, but it is currently only available on the tube and the DLR (the light rail system in what was formerly London Docks).

One thing’s for certain. Having lived in Hong Kong for several years, and in London for many years before that, I am in no doubt about which city has the better public transport system. That it’s also cheaper here is just a bonus!

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2 responses to “HK$28 to travel from Central – Causeway Bay?”

  1. Mike avatar
    Mike

    Your comments on pricing fail to take into account a most important factor in setting prices for public transportation. Volume!! Not just during peak hours but throughout the whole day.
    It is understandable that fares will be three times the price on a system that is carrying perhaps only 30% of its maximum capacity.
    I don’t know what the patronage figures are but it is a natural assumption that the less densely populated areas in England will have fewer passengers compared to Hong Kong. Note that fully patronised rail system like the MTR can carry up to 90,000 people per hour with trains running with 2 minute headway. (30 trains per hour, 3000 passengers per train).
    I believe that rail services on the busiest sections of British Rail carry only 40,000 people per hour and thats probably only during peak hours. (29 trains per hour, 1500 passengers per train).
    People pay for the privilege of living in dispersed suburbia. For example a typical high rise Hong Kong only requires 10 feet of sewer pipe between one house and their neighbours upstairs; however, a person living on acreage in the outer suburbs of a city in Australia may require several hundred feet. And that pipe will be carrying a lot less effluent. i.e. No blown manhole covers!
    I agree the octopus is a great system. We don’t have anything like it here in Brisbane. There’s nothing worse than scratching around in your pocket looking for change. Mind you, you have plenty of time to search for it with up to 1 hour between busses.
    One of the problems here in Australia is that the person living on acreage 50km from the city is often paying much lower land taxes compared to the inner city dweller whilst requiring much more in the way of public infrastructure, roads, piping, busses etc; thereby leaving no incentive to reduce their consumption.

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  2. Chris avatar
    Chris

    Yes. Also, the MTR is a more modern and efficient system, and because the public transport system is so good, people use it more. Yet Hong Kong used to have a reputation as an expensive city – mainly because of property prices, of course.
    When Ken Livingstone was leader of the Greater London Council he did make efforts to cut fares on public transport. Now as Mayor of London he is trying a different approach with the congestion charge and trying to get people to use the buses now that they can travel faster.

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