Learning Points from Discontinued Marine Parade Shuttle Bus Trial
Ministry of Culture, Community and YouthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the learning points from the discontinued Marine Parade shuttle bus trial and their application to future Community Development Council (CDC) transport funding assessments. Ms He Ting Ru inquired about the lessons learned, while Minister Edwin Tong Chun Fai explained that the pilot was funded by donations and a $200,000 South East CDC seed grant. He noted that data on varying route usage led to frequency adjustments and the eventual decision by Grassroots Advisers to terminate the service for more targeted connectivity solutions. The Minister emphasized a policy of piloting, adapting, and reviewing resources to ensure community programmes effectively foster social bonding and meet resident needs. Consequently, resources will be redeployed in a more focused manner, with further details on these new initiatives to be announced soon.
Transcript
83 Ms He Ting Ru asked the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth what are the learning points from the discontinued free Marine Parade shuttle bus trial that will be applied to future assessments of Community Development Council funds disbursements for free or discounted transport offerings.
Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai: Mr Speaker, I am answering in my capacity as the Minister charged with the responsibility for the People's Association.
The Community Development Council (CDC) funds support community programmes that help and benefit the community, strengthen the social glue, build a more compassionate society and foster community bonding. In response to feedback from residents for last-mile connectivity, the Marine Parade shuttle bus service was launched as a pilot by the Grassroots Organisations (GROs) of the Marine Parade Town Cluster to address the needs. The majority of the funding for the shuttle bus pilot came from donations raised by the GROs, supplemented by a $200,000 seed grant provided by the South East CDC.
Learning points from the pilot include the fact that some routes experienced higher usage than others across different time periods due to varying needs of residents in different locations. The data collected from the usage patterns were useful. Adjustments were made, taking the usage data and feedback into consideration; bus frequencies were adjusted and one of the routes was discontinued earlier this year. The GROs will continue to adopt this approach of piloting, adapting and reviewing how to deploy resources to best serve resident needs.
Marine Parade GRC Grassroots Advisers have studied the detailed findings from the operations and have decided to terminate the shuttle bus and to deploy resources in a more targeted manner to meet the connectivity needs of residents across Marine Parade. More details will be announced soon.