TD reminds students to allow more travelling time on first school day

     The Transport Department (TD) today (September 1) reminded students to allow more travelling time on the first school day tomorrow (September 2) to avoid being late, as the overall traffic is anticipated to be busier. Motorists are advised to avoid driving to school areas.
     
     "Students, especially those attending a new school soon, should familiarise themselves early with public transport routes to and from their schools and the service frequencies. Those taking ferries should further check their vessel types and journey times. Students should pay attention to the latest traffic news. They should also take heed of road safety on their journeys, properly use crossing facilities to cross the roads, and not eat, drink, play mobile games, use a mobile phone, or listen to any audio device, etc, when crossing the roads," a spokesman for the TD said.

     Major public transport operators (PTOs) have been reminded to provide adequate services, and enhance service frequency and deploy standby services when necessary to cater for passenger demand. The TD has also reviewed the neighbouring traffic and transport arrangements of new schools. Special routes serving school areas will be resumed. Meanwhile, local franchised bus operators providing services to and from land boundary control points (BCPs) and cross-boundary coach operators have been reminded to provide adequate services for cross-boundary students.

     "The operation of the TD's Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre (ETCC) will be escalated to the highest tier, the Joint Steering Mode, tomorrow morning to jointly and closely monitor the real-time traffic and public transport services on the first school day in collaboration with the Police and PTOs. Staff will be deployed at major public transport interchanges and school areas across the territory for on-site monitoring, including school areas such as Kowloon Tong, Po Kong Village Road in Wong Tai Sin, Kwai Shing Circuit in Kwai Chung and Braemar Hill in North Point, land BCPs and tunnels. They will report the latest situation to the ETCC for service enhancement and implementation of traffic management measures accordingly where necessary, such as adjustment to on-street traffic signals timing and liaison with the Police for assistance in traffic dispersion," the spokesman added.

     The ETCC will disseminate the latest information on traffic news of various districts to the public as appropriate. Members of the public are advised to pay attention to media broadcasts or the TD's mobile application "HKeMobility" or website (www.td.gov.hk). For enquiries, please call the TD's hotline on 2804 2600 or 1823. Details of the operators' service are also available on their hotlines and websites: