New World First Bus

Background

Before NWFB was established, franchised bus services in Hong Kong Island were provided by China Motor Bus (CMB) (franchisee since 1933) and Citybus (franchisee since 1991). In the early 1990s, the service levels of CMB were in decline. Therefore, the Government of Hong Kong started to introduce new competitors by transferring the franchise of CMB routes to other companies. As a result, Citybus became the second franchisee of bus services on Hong Kong Island. Over 40 routes were transferred between 1991 and 1995. As a result of the loss of many profitable routes, the services of CMB did not show any significant improvement.

Bidding for franchise

In February 1998, the government announced the franchise for all 140 routes operated by CMB would not be renewed when it expired on 31 August 1998. Eighty-eight of the routes were placed to open tender, 12 routes were transferred directly to Citybus, one cross-harbour route to Kowloon Motor Bus, and the remaining routes were cancelled.

Six companies lodged bids:

NWS Holdings was considered a dark horse as it was the only bidder with no local bus operation experience. However, NWS Holdings was awarded a replacement franchise in March 1998 with commitments of new facilities, improved service standards and employment of CMB staff. During the handover in mid-1998, NWFB faced many difficulties since CMB was reluctant to cooperate.

Start of operations

NWFB officially commenced operating at midnight on 1 September 1998, taking over 88 bus routes and employing a fleet of 710 mostly step-entrance buses after a series of negotiations and with help from the government. However NWFB had already started its operation of other non-overnight routes at midnight as CMB refused to operate after that time. In order to compete with Citybus and KMB, NWFB has purchased 500 new low-floor buses, 50 of which entered service in September 1998; most of these were either Dennis Trident 3s or Volvo B10TLs while 76 were Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart SLFs.

In May 2000, the FirstGroup sold its shares in NWFB to joint venture partner New World Development, giving New World Development 100% ownership of the company.

In June 2003, fellow franchised bus operator Citybus was purchased by NWFB parent company NWS Holdings, bringing the bus services of Hong Kong Island once again under control of a single organisation. Before the acquisition, many of the two companies' competing routes overlap each other. In order to make better use of company resources, many routes were reshuffled. Redundant routes were cancelled, and Octopus card bus-bus interchange discounts were introduced between routes of both companies.

In January 2004, NWFB took a 51% shareholding in Kunming New World First Bus, a joint venture established with the city of Kunming on the Southwestern Chinese mainland, to operate 39 bus routes within Kumning and across Yunnan province with a fleet of 700 buses.

Retirement of brand

In August 2020, NWFB, along with Citybus, were sold to the Bravo Transport consortium, made up of private equity firm Templewater Bravo, Hong Kong-listed investment holding company Hans Energy and Ascendal Group.

In July 2022, Bravo Transport announced that it would be retiring the NWFB brand, with operations merged into Citybus when the next franchise commenced on 1 July 2023. In July 2023, the brand was retired.

As of July 2022, the New World First Bus fleet consisted of 650 buses. NWFB operated four depots in Heng Fa Chuen, Wong Chuk Hang, Tseung Kwan O and West Kowloon.

Gallery

Before the merger with Citybus, New World First Bus had 168 routes. Triple digit routes beginning with 5 were originally air-conditioned only bus routes in the 1990s, however due to the retirement of non-air conditioned buses and the resultant rationalisation of these services, only three of these services (511, 592 and 595) remain.

In October 2009, NWFB commenced operating open-top sightseeing buses through its Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus subsidiary.