Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus

Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus

Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus (Chinese: 人力車觀光巴士) is a brand of sightseeing transportation service operated by New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB), one of the franchised bus services operators in Hong Kong. Using "rickshaw", an old Hong Kong icon, as a trademark, it offers a thematic sightseeing route by open top sightseeing buses decorated under the rickshaw concept. It aims to facilitate visitors to explore local culture and diverse attractions of Hong Kong.

The Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus was introduced on 18 October 2009, intended to reminisce the early days of Hong Kong for visitors and local citizens, and also to facilitate the up-growing demand of individual travelers.[1] Before 13 December 2014, there were two routes which called "H1 Heritage Tour" and "H2 Metropolis Tour", but it merged into a route with the new crossing-harbour trip.

Routes

Bus stop sign of Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus
Logo of Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus

Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus provides a sightseeing route, "H1 Heritage Tour" .

H1 Heritage Tour

"H1 heritage route" takes riders around the main attractions in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon to experience the "old" Hong Kong culture and colonial lifestyle.

En route bus stops

Fare: $33.0 HKD/ direction (From Stop 1 to 21 and Stop 21 to 1)

1. Central (Star Ferry)

2. Central (Exchange Square) Bus Terminus - Interchange stop for Citybus route 260 to Stanley, New World First Bus route 15 to The Peak

3. Connaught Road West near Western Market, Macau Ferry Terminal

4. Queen Street near Ginseng & Bird's Nest Street

5. Hollywood Road opposite Man Mo Temple, Lascar Row

6. Peel Street

7. Hollywood Road opposite Old Central Police Station

8. Lan Kwai Fong、Wyndham Street

9. Ladder Street, Duddell Street gas lamps

10. Statue Square（Chater Road）

11. Central Government Offices, Tamar Park

12. The Monument In Commemoration Of The Return Of Hong Kong To China

13. Golden Bauhinia Square, Convention and Exhibition Centre

14. Wan Chai Ferry Pier

Across Cross Harbour Tunnel to Kowloon

15. Temple Street

16. Jade Street, Battery Street

17. Harbour City

18. 1881 Heritage, Peking Road

19. Avenue Of Stars, East Tsim Sha Tsui Station(Change For MTR West Rail Line)

20. K11

21. Hong Kong Museum of History, Granville Road

Passengers which would like to continue their journey to stops no 22 to 1, should pay $33 HKD again when alighting

Across Cross Harbour Tunnel to Hong Kong Island

22. Causeway Bay Shopping Area, Paterson Street

23. Times Square, Lee Gardens

24. Happy Valley Racecourse

25. Bowing Road Market(Ngo Keng Kiu)

26. Southorn Playground, Wo Cheong Pawn Shop

27. Pacific Place. Hong Kong Park

28. Peak Tram Terminus, St John's Cathedral

29. Statue Square (Connaught Road Central)

1. Central (Star Ferry)

Starting from 13 December 2014, routes H1 and H2 combined as a new route and a new route extension to Kowloon side including Jordan Temple Street Night Market, Woosung Street, Jade Market, Tsim Sha Tsui Heritage 1881 and Star Ferry. The stops in Mid Levels cancelled since this service change. The route departs every 30 minutes from 10:00 am till 8:30 pm everyday. Departures after 4:30 pm will directly go to Kowloon side, omitting the stops of Hollywood Road in Mid Levels.

Fleet

Starting from February 2015, a batch of five 2002 Dennis Trident 12-metre(fleet number 1215-1219)started to be converting into half open-topped sightseeing bus and replace the 11-metre Volvo Olympians. The old Olympians will start to transfer to Citybus and replace the old open-topped Leyland Olympians. VA51 had its last day service on Route H1 on 15 April 2015 while the replacement Tridents were not ready into service until 16 May 2015. Between this period, New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) were using standard buses including Dennis Tridents (fleet number 1180 and 3313) and Alexander Dennis Enviro 500s (fleet number 4040 which had been repainted into Arts Bus on the Move 2015 livery, 5518 and 5539 which are in standard livery and 5568 which had been repainted into 2015 Year of The Goat Chinese Zodiac Bus livery). The first half open-topped Trident,1215, finally entered service on 16 May 2015 operating on the first departure that day. The second and the third new open-topped buses entered service on 19 May 2015 and 20 June 2015. The second Olympian to be transferred to Citybus was VA54 and its last day service was 17 May 2015 and it was repainted into red 'Auntie Nora' livery to replace the AEC Routemaster open-topped vintage bus in the Citybus fleet. VA51 and VA54 changed their fleet numbers into 22 and 23 and finally joined Citybus in June 2015.

Fare

Single trip fare: HKD 33 (Riders are required to alight at stop 21 of one single trip fare, or continue to stay on the bus to continue the journey, it's required to pay the single trip fare again when alighting )
One-day Pass: HKD 200 (One day unlimited hop-on hop-off rides on route H1)

Service hours and headways

See also

References

  1. ↑ Brand New NWFB Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus Offers One Day Unlimited Hop-on Hop-off Heritage and Metropolis Tours in Hong Kong, Press release by NWFB (18 October 2009)
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