Bus fans

Many bus fans will take photographs of buses or ride them as a form of farewell before they fully retire. Pictured was the scene during the last day of KMB non-air-conditioned buses

Huge flocks of bus fans went to take photos at Mong Kok (Park Avenue) on the last day of KMB non-air-conditioned buses. Pictured was the last non-air-conditioned bus departure of Route 16

Huge flocks of bus fans went to take photographs of special routes for the fireworks display at Tuen Mun Station

Bus fans also take pictures within the compartment

Bus fans (巴士迷), also known as bus enthusiasts or bus spotters (巴士愛好者, commonly used by those outside Hong Kong), are a group of people who are enthusiastic with buses and is part of the transport enthusiasts.

Formation and development

Bus routes already existed in Hong Kong as early as in the 1920s. At that time, bus companies such as The Kowloon Motor Bus (1933) Company Limited (KMB) and the China Motor Bus Company Limited (CMB) provided services in Kowloon, Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. In 1933, the Government granted franchises to KMB and CMB, laying the foundation for bus services in Hong Kong.

In 1949, KMB introduced its first double-decker bus, the Daimler CVG5 (later known as the Daimler Model A). As Hong Kong was once a British colony, all buses had to be manufactured in the British Commonwealth (this restriction was only lifted in September 1984), so most of the buses in Hong Kong in the early years of the post-World War II era were purchased directly from the United Kingdom.

Some bus enthusiasts studied Hong Kong buses. They had a special interest in things related to Hong Kong buses, and their studies covered areas such as bus history, bus models and structures, bus equipment, etc. Starting from the 1980s, their studies were extended to other areas, including bus advertisements, and derivatives (such as bus models), with public light buses (PLBs) being one of the areas of their studies.

Since the 1990s, some Hong Kong bus enthusiasts have formed hobby organisations, such as the Hong Kong Transport Society and Bus Fan World, etc. Some well-known bus enthusiasts have even compiled a compendium of information on Hong Kong buses, such as Hong Kong Buses (by Mike Davis), Hong Kong Bus Handbook (by Danny Chan), Hong Kong Buses Yearbook (by Danny Chan), A Collection of Hong Kong Buses (by Stanley Yung Wai-chiu), and The Fleet Directory of Hong Kong Buses (by Yung Wai-chiu), and so on.

From the 2000s onwards, with the continuous advancement of the Internet and digital camera technology, it has become easier for young people to access bus information, resulting in more young people interested in various aspects of buses becoming bus fans, covering areas such as bus multimedia (photographs, videos, etc.), bus service updates, special sight reports, advertisements and equipment updates, route suggestions, and derivatives (e.g. models, video games).

Rogue bus fans

With the increasing number of bus fans, a wide range of bus fans, whether good or bad, is gradually emerging. These kinds of rogue bus fans often engage in these following behaviours:

Bus photography

• Failure to observe the consensus of the bus fan community;
• Violation of traffic rules and disregard for their own safety, e.g. standing in the centre of the road/street, intruding into a controlled highway zone to take photos of buses, running on the road to take photos of the extreme special sights ; and even led to traffic accidents as a result.
• Some bus fans filming with mobile phones or short lenses rushed out to film at the moment when the target appeared, blocking the bus fans filming with long lenses behind them, with bus fans at the rear responding with foul language;
• Making indecent gestures towards the bus driver or buses, passers-by and vehicles;
• Taking flash photography of buses, thus affecting the bus driver's driving;
• Asking bus captains to play with electronic displays or going up to the driver's cab without authorisation to press the electronic route display screen to play with electronic displays; the bus captains concerned may be subject to internal disciplinary action by the bus companies if the relevant information is posted on the Internet;
• Using obstacles such as ‘ice-cream cones’ to obstruct the road in order to take photos of the buses from a better angle;
• It is becoming more common for bus fans who are secondary/primary school students to own digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras worth more than $10,000 to take photographs of buses, and some of them have their parents purchase high-priced photographic equipment at their own expense. However, some of them have not mastered the basic photography skills, so the quality of the photos taken by their SLRs is even worse than those taken with ordinary ‘dumbphones’ or mobile phones, and they are accused of using SLRs just to show off their own. The netizens were persuaded to use a DSLR, but were accused of not knowing anything about photography, and even said that bus fans must have a DSLR and a telephoto lens, and that people with dumbphones should not be fans of buses.
• Causing nuisance to other passengers or the bus driver just to film front view route visual videos:
  • Intentionally or unintentionally jumping the queue or ‘hogging’ a seat in the front row of the upper deck in order to gain access to the front row of the upper deck for video filming;
  • Forcing other passengers to give up their seats for filming when the front row of the upper deck is full;
  • When asked by the bus driver not to film, continuing to do so and causing disputes.

2 rogue bus fans stood in the middle of Junction Road to take photos of 3ASV303 on 21 October 2012

On the debut day of Routes 290 and 290A on 28 March 2015, several rogue bus fans entered the kerb of New Clear Water Bay Road near Pak Hung House to take photos of an Enviro500 MMC 12m (TF7808) with the Tseung Kwan O - Tsuen Wan Bus Routes whole-body promotional advertisement

On the debut day of Route 214 on 13 August 2016, rogue bus fans entered the centre of the carriageway of Cheung Sha Wan (Kom Tsun Street) Bus Terminus to take photos of the Volvo B9TL (AVBWU) special sight

Rogue bus fans turning on flashlights for photo-taking

Bus fans gathered at the General Post Office bus stop to take photos of ex-CMB MC6

Huge amounts of bus fans were taking photos of the soon-to-retire Volvo Super Olympian and the last Dennis Trident in service as a farewell

Bus fans taking photos of buses running on Book Fair dismissal routes at Wan Chai (HKCEC Extension) Bus Terminus

Bus fans recording route visuals on lower deck

Daily operations

• Stealing property of bus companies or sub-divided vehicle workshops, such as bus manufacturer's logo, plastic plates, suckling pig papers, travel passes, uniforms of bus captains, etc., and in more serious cases, stealing and driving buses;
• Getting acquainted with bus captains to evade fares or travelling on deadheading buses, which may result in internal disciplinary action by the bus company;
• Unauthorised pressing of door buttons or tampering with cab equipment;
• Intentionally displaying in a conspicuous position on a bus duly carrying passengers a plastic route sign or related materials which are inconsistent with the direction, route or destination of the bus to mislead the passers-by and passengers;
• Talking to the bus driver while the bus is in motion, other than for safety reasons, thus affecting safety;
• Walking around and shouting inside bus compartments, mimicking the sound of bus stop announcements or bus travelling noises, or playing nuisance sound effects, which constitute a nuisance to other passengers;
• Indiscriminately pressing the alighting bell, causing the bus to stop even when there are no passengers boarding or alighting, thereby prolonging the journey and causing obstruction to other passengers;
• Behaving impolitely to other passengers (including using abusive language) or displaying indecent gestures out of bus windows;
• Making noises, shouting or yelling for no reason at or in the vicinity of bus termini or bus stops, causing nuisance to bus captains, passengers waiting for buses and passers-by;
• Indecent acts or even endangering the safety of other passengers inside the bus compartment, such as eating or drinking inside the bus compartment, stepping on the opposite seat (commonly known as ‘flying elephants crossing the river’), or even intentionally rushing down the stairs to cause man-made accidents;
• Vandalism, including graffiti on bus compartments, damaging bus seats, tearing off publicity advertisements and original stickers behind bus seats, or indiscriminately putting up stickers, banners and other publicity leaflets.

Suspected behaviours include:

• Trespassing into the Frontier Closed Area (FCA) by buses or minibuses without valid travel documents or Closed Area Permits, such as the Shenzhen Bay Port, Lok Ma Chau Station, Lok Ma Chau Control Point, Sha Tau Kok Bus Terminus and so on, without reasonable grounds such as crossing the boundary to Mainland China or working, attending school, residing in the FCA area, or visiting relatives, etc., which may constitute a contravention of Section 38 of the Public Order Ordinance.

Other behaviours

• Disregarding safety and engaging in dangerous behaviour to give vent to personal feelings, such as dashing out of the road to stop buses from moving;
• Organising small circles to exclude other bus fans;
• Making false notices to mislead the public;
• Posting indiscriminately in transport discussion forums or social media, e.g. making unrealistic route proposals, bragging about individual bus routes or bus companies, i.e. being a "great master" or "big emperor" (大帝) of various routes/districts;
• Posting off-topic, irrational and speculative opinions in online discussion forums or social media from time to time, or even using foul language to make personal attacks;
• Posting unsubstantiated and even false information (commonly known as "rumours") on online discussion forums or social media, including false reports on tender results, vehicle movements or special sights;
  • For example, a famous rogue bus fan, eric278, published false information on Facebook under the name of his page "681BusTerminal", falsely claiming that he had quoted from a Legislative Council Member, Chan Han-pan, that four routes in the Anderson Road Quarry Development Area would be granted to Citybus, and Chan once claimed that he would report the case to the police for action;
• Taking advantage of serious traffic accidents to take advantage of the situation, cracking jokes or cursing others, causing secondary injuries to the survivors and family members of the deceased;
• Committing criminal offences such as trespassing in scrap yards, bus depots and car parks, theft of stolen buses, forgery, impersonating bus company staff, and even arson;
• Over-indulgence in bus-tracking, making buses his/her sole hobby, often neglecting his/her performance in other areas (e.g. school or work) to the extent of affecting his/her relationship with his/her family members or non-bus enthusiasts; and even disregarding the community's call to refrain from going out when it is not essential to do so;
  • For example, during the 2020 novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, some bus fans were criticised for ignoring the Government's Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition of Group Gathering) Regulation (also known as the "Gathering Restriction Order"), which prohibits gatherings of more than a specified number of people, and still risking prosecution by going out to gather just to satisfy their own interest in taking photographs of buses;
• Abetting others to engage in the above undesirable behaviour.

Well-known bus fans

Some well-known bus fans have made a lot of contributions to Hong Kong's buses and are widely known, for example:

• Mike Davis (Author of English books on Hong Kong buses Hong Kong Buses series)
• Danny Chan (Author of Hong Kong Buses Handbook and Hong Kong Buses Yearbook series)
• Kwok Ping-wah (Founder of 80M Bus Model Shop)

Transport information sites

Nowadays, there are many websites for bus fans to browse in Hong Kong, and some discussion forums even set up a special section for bus fans to express their opinions, the following is only a list of some famous transport information websites.

Bus information sites The Encylopedia of Bus Transport in Hong Kong i-busnet.com (巴士資訊網) USHB BUSTop 16SEATS Hong Kong Bus Resource Information Centre (HKBRIC) QBus File China Motor Bus Memorial Page ACROSS 14 - Web Portal for Bus Enthusiasts Buscess KMB Buses (Database for KMB and LWB bus fleet) Albert Leung's Bus Route Table Buspedia Note: The information on the website is for reference only. The actual information should be based on the information provided by the operator.

Transport enthusiast discussion forums (in Chinese only) HkiTalk Hong Kong Bus Forum (HKBF) Hong Kong Bus Discussion Centre (HKBDC) HKDiscuss - Bus discussion Bus discussion forums in major integrated discussion forums (in Chinese only) HKdiscuss: Bus discussion Uwants: Bus Fan zone Others KMB - Bus Blog (Chinese)

Related articles

ERTHK Article:

Rail fans

• Bus photography
• Bus model
• List of books on buses

Notes and References

External links

• 巴士迷的故事 （A story of bus fan), KMB Youtube channel.
• 星期一檔案：巴士情真(9-9-1991), YouTube

To facilitate quoting and enquiries, the following redirect page(s) will direct to this page:

Bus enthusiasts, Bus spotters, Rogue bus fans and Rogue bus enthusiasts

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