a bit stinkie from time to time

Stinky or not, it's that time of the month again! Renew your monthly tickets for $495 for unlimited travels during March at the following times and places:

26/2 (Sat), 28/2 (Mon), 1/3 (Tue) and 2/3 (Wed)
Central pier: 8:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan pier: 5:00pm - 11:00pm

27/2 (Sun)
Central pier: 9:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 6:00pm

Here we go again, monthly travellers! Renew your monthly ferry tickets for April at these times and places:

30/3/2005 - 2/4/2005 (Wednesday to Saturday) (inclusive)

8:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Central Pier

5:00pm - 11:00pm
Yung Shue Wan Pier

I think I may have solved the "Sneaky-O/Bunnyrabbit Conundrum", one of the last great unsolved riddles of the universe (see earlier this thread). The charming lady at the Central monthly ticket renewal office patiently answered my questions, and after an initial eye-rolling "Oh no, not this one again" came up with the following:

If you have a valid ticket until the end of March, and you board the last ferry on the night of Thursday 31st, (i.e. 12.30 a.m. on Friday morning first of April), you are in theory past the deadline of midnight on the last day of the month. However, the turnstyle staff have been instructed to let you through nonetheless by a manual manouvre known only to them.

If you only have a valid pass for April, you should be able to pass through, as it is already 30 minutes into April, but there is some uncertainty surrounding the issue of whether or not it would actually work in practice, so in case of dispute, it is better to have your receipt handy. So provided you have your receipts ready to flash, this sounds like good news - according to this explanation, everyone wins.

I'm not sure, though, if it is official company policy or just a "let's get this creep the hell out of my office" ad hoc routine, so empirical testing of these scenarios would be illuminating.

And another chance to prove that theory is up! But if you don't want to push your luck that far, here are the monthly ferry tickets renbewal dates for May 2005:

28 - 30/4/2005 (Thur - Sat)
Central Pier: 8:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan Pier: 5:00pm - 11:00pm

1 - 2/5/2005 (Sun - Public-holi-Mon-day)
Central Pier: 9:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 6:00pm

Does anyone know where I can get some black and white A3 photocopying done in Yung Shue Long New Village?

It's that time of the month again, my dear Lammaites! The June 2005 monthly ferry ticket renewal dates and times below:

30 May - 2 June 2005
Central pier: 8:00am - 1:00pm & 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan pier: 5:00pm - 11:00pm

Yet another one of my silly ideas, but why not start a line dance as you queue up patiently for your turn to pay? Yeehaaaaaaa!!

Monthly Ferry Ticket Renewal for July 2005:

28-30/6 (Tue - Thu) and 2/7 (Sat)
8:00am - 1:00pm & 2:00pm - 6:00pm at Central pier
5:00pm - 11:00pm at Yung Shue Wan pier

1/7 (Fri - public holiday)
9:00am - 1:00pm & 2:00pm - 6:00pm at Central pier

Hi folks, it's that time of the month again! You can get your precious monthly ferry ticket renewed for $495 at the following dates and times:

29-30 July & 1-2 August
Central Pier: 8am - 1pm & 2 - 6pm
Yung Shue Wan Pier: 5 - 11pm

31 July (Sunday)
Central Pier: 9am - 1pm & 2 - 6pm
Yung Shue Wan Pier: 5 - 11pm

Your Official Court Monthly Ferry Ticket Reminderer signing off for yet another cycle of the moon...

Time to renew your monthly ferry ticket for September 2005!

30 August - 2 September 2005 (Tue - Fri)
Central: 8am to 1pm AND 2pm - 6pm
Yung Shue Wan: 5pm to 11pm

And still no late ferries announced...

HKKF is taking its time to answer the handful of comments they've received on the questionnaires, being in absolutely no hurry whatsoever...
Only after responding to the comments, the Transport Dept. will permit the 2-month trial run of late ferries...

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My understanding of the events are a bit different though...

I thought the TD had already rejected the trial before passing the large handful of comments to HKKF to answer, as TD - after considering those comments - deemed the trial unpractical...

Essentially, no late ferries until the local politicians / village reps / movers and shakers can convince HKKF to launch the trial, and that's going to take a lot of time, effort and patience. So keep the sampan phone numbers handy, folks!

The ferry companies have always said that the only ferries that make money are the peak hour commuter and the Sunday tourist ones. The rest they do because they're obliged to. I've never believed a 2:30 AM ferry could take more than a dozen passengers, or much fewer, and the fare (if any -- they don't get any extra from monthly ticket holders) won't cover keeping the lights on at the pier, let alone crew and diesel.

This is beginning to sound like a pipedream some politician pushed, and the TD went through the motions to humour them. Unless HKKF actually wants to do it, they don't have to, and won't.

Actually, after years of campaigning, the politicians had convinced HKKF to do the two-month trial of overnight services (2:30am Central to Yung Shue Wan & 12:30am and 5:00am YSW to C); and as far as my understanding goes, approval from TD would've made it happen.

During the public consultation period, however, some residents sent their views directly to TD - instead of putting it in the collection box across from Emily's - asking for hourly overnight ferry services. Very unpractical, indeed. And TD rejected the entire trial...

Well, that's a bit of a different story to what the ferry PR has been telling me, who insisted that it only caused a slight delay in the start of the trial.
But if these handful of comments could really derail the trial then neither the ferry co. nor the TD was ever really supportive of the trial, using these few random comments as an excuse to kill the trial...

As far as I understand there was basically no opposition to the trial, just a few people wanted evern more late ferries. So what, is that a a reason to kill the trial?

The local politicians then can blame only the Village Head who circulated the Chin. and English questionnaires widely to local residents. It was to be expected that some of them would send in the questionnaire directly to TD (the contacts were on the distributed questionnaire), the residents not trusting the local politicians to accurately forward their feedback & comments to the TD if they'd just put the questionnaire into the feedback box.
So the Village Head - who's also very eager about the trial, as a major landlord - shot himself in the foot badly...

I'll be calling HKKF later this week, checking out the status of the trial...

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Ther are four concerned groups here.

1) Residents want more ferries, they'd support one every 10 minutes. (Though if people considered their rents will probably go up as a result, they might not.)

2) The ferry company doesn't, off-peak ferries lose money.

3) Politicians (= land owners and construction firms) want more ferries, makes housing more attractive to commuters and makes their property more valuable. Helps with the voters too.

4) Transport Dept just goes through the formalities when any change is proposed. Historically, they've shown more sympathy to operators' profits than commuters' needs, as commuters don't have any direct voice in government, while transport companies can vote in the Transport Functional Constituency.

Following self-interest and money usually gives a better understanding of motives than trying to reconcile PR platitudes.

Checking the soft-copies on both the English and Chinese forums just now - the contact given on the posters are for the Islands District Office, and NOT the Transport Department. The unruly bunch found the TD's fax number through other means... But let's not get stuck in the small technical stuff for now...

Would be great to find out what HKKF has to say about the trial...

First Ferry's Cheung Chau route has ferries from Central at
00:30; 01:30; 04:15.

Anyone know someone there who'd have an idea of the ridership on these? That should give an idea of how late-late ferries would go here.

Or maybe the TD has this info (FF probably wouldn't tell you.)

Another month has been and gone, ye all monthly ferry ticket bearing Lammaites, and it's top up time again...

28 - 30 September 2005 (Wed - Fri)
Central: 8:00am - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan: 5:00pm - 11:00pm

1 - 2 October 2005 (Sat - Sun)
Central: 9:00am - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan: 5:00pm - 11:00pm

It's that time of the month again folks... Renewal dates and times for November 2005:

29/10 (Sat), 31/10 (Mon), 1/11 (Tue) and 2/11 (Wed)
Central Ferry Pier: 8:00am - 1:00pm; 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan Pier: 5:00pm - 11:00pm

30/10 (Sun)
Central Ferry Pier: 9:00am - 1:00pm; 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Yung Shue Wan Pier: 5:00pm - 11:00pm