Citybus Route 79

A Route 79 bus was entering Tai Wai Station
Route Info
Terminus	Queen's Hill Fanling ↔ Tai Wai Station ●
via	Ma Mei Ha, Tai Po, Yuen Wo Road, Sha Tin Wai, Chun Shek Estate
Distance	To Tai Wai Station: 30.4km To Fanling: 29.8km
Travelling time	70mins
Commencement date	2024/8/25
Operation Info
Current operator	Citybus
Current depot	West Kowloon Depot (N)
Main Vehicle	6460-6490, 8806-8829/521XX, 8547-8557
Fare Info
Full fare	$13.6
Number of Fare Sections	To Tai Wai Station: 2 To Fanling: 3
Service Hours
Origin service time	07:00 - 20:00
Terminus service time	08:20 - 21:20
Headway	20/30mins

The New Territories Bus Route 79 is operated by Citybus. It runs between Queen's Hill Fanling and Tai Wai Station, via Ma Mei Ha, Tai Po (Tai Po Tai Wo Road, Kwong Fuk Estate), Sha Tin Central (Yuen Wo Road), Sha Tin Wai (Tai Chung Kiu Road), Chun Shek Estate, passing through Heung Yuen Wai Highway and Tolo Highway.

History

Commencing background

Fanling North, along the southbound Lung Shan Tunnel, can reach Tai Po New Town, which has different community facilities and feeder transport to and from the industrial estates in the area to the urban area; however, there is no bus service connecting between both places. In April 2023, the then Chairman of the North District Council and Queen's Hill District Councillor, Mr Jasper Law, submitted a motion proposing the introduction of additional bus routes between Queen's Hill and Tai Po, which was noted by the Transport Department (TD) and the bus companies, and Citybus indicated that it would be pleased to explore such a service with the TD.

In the Bus Route Planning Programme for the following year, TD and Citybus proposed to introduce a new route 79, which would operate whole day between Queen's Hill and Tai Wai Station, via Lung Shan Tunnel, Tai Po Tai Wo Road, Kwong Fuk Estate, Tolo Highway, Yuen Wo Road, Sand Martin Bridge, Tai Chung Kiu Road and Che Kung Miu Road, so as to cope with the demand of the residents of Queen's Hill for travelling to and from Tai Po and Shatin, and to link up a number of new towns in the eastern part of the New Territories with the New Development Areas . While District Council members hoped that the route would introduce a two-way section fare and to run deep into the New Town Plaza area in Sha Tin Central; meanwhile the local organisations considered that the first bus was late in departing and would not fully cater for the needs of the students, and pointed out that the new route overlapped with the KMB routes 72, 72A and W3. The Transport Department (TD) responded that the designated routes were meant to facilitate passengers travelling to and from districts far away from the railway stations and to achieve traffic diversion.

Service launch

Route 79 passes many schools along the route. During the consultation process, "Transport in Tai Po" considered that the first bus departure time was late (the planned first bus from Queen's Hill is at 07:00 and the first bus from Tai Wai is at 08:20), which can only serve the Queen's Hill students who attend schools in Tai Po, and does not fully cater for the demand of students along the route, and suggested to increase the frequency of buses at an earlier time slot.

The route commenced operation in late August 2024, and the first bus from Queen's Hill was maintained at 07:00 in the first week. On the opening day, some media interviews revealed that the journey time from Queen's Hill to Tai Po is faster than using KMB Route 78A to interchange with the MTR East Rail Line, but the high fare was criticised by residents.

On the second Monday after the commencement of Route 79, which is the first day of school, Citybus eventually introduced a new service from Queen's Hill to Tai Wai Station in the early morning of school days, so as to provide convenience to Queen's Hill students as well as Tai Po students attending schools in Sha Tin. A District Councillor, together with representatives of TD and Citybus, visited Queen's Hill for two consecutive days and found that the route was very popular and buses were nearly full. Citybus immediately arranged for a temporary increase in frequency in the early morning of the third day of the school year and applied to TD for service enhancement.

• 25 August 2024: Route 79 entered service.
• 2 September 2024: A new departure from Queen's Hill Fanling to Tai Wai Station at 06:30 on Monday to Friday school days was added until 29 November 2024 on trial basis, which later became a permanent measure.
• 23 September 2024: Two new departures from Queen's Hill Fanling to Tai Wai Station with departing times at 06:45 and 06:55 were added, and the original departure at 07:00 from Queen's Hill was changed to 07:05 until 29 November 2024 on a trial basis, which later became a permanent measure.

Service hours and headways

The latest update is on 9/2024, please refer to the link below for the official route information.

From Queen's Hill Fanling Service hours Headways (mins) Monday to Friday school days 06:30 - 06:45 15 06:45 - 07:05 10 07:05 - 07:20 15 07:20 - 18:00 20 18:00 - 20:00 30 Saturdays, Sundays, Public Holidays and school holidays 07:00 - 18:00 20 18:00 - 20:00 30

From Tai Wai Station Service hours Headways (mins) Daily 08:20 - 10:20 30 10:20 - 21:20 20

This route provides "Next Bus" Arrival Time Enquiry Service.

Fares

Journey/Boarding stop	Fares
Full fare	$13.6
Section fares (to Tai Wai)
From Greenery Plaza	$13.0
From Wo Che Estate	$6.8
Section fares (to Fanling)
From Kwong Fuk Estate	$10.7
From Chun Yiu	$5.6
From Hung Leng	$4.4

Fare Remarks

Half-fare for children aged below 12 and senior citizens aged 65 or above; the remainder of the fare after half-fare will be counted as 10 cents. Elderly persons aged 65 or above using Senior Octopus Cards or Personalised Octopus cards, Hong Kong residents aged 60 to 64 using JoyYou Card, and eligible persons with disabilities using Personalised Octopus cards with "Persons with Disabilities Status" can enjoy a flat fare of $2.0 per journey under the $2 Concessionary Fare. If the concessionary fare for eligible persons with disabilities aged below 12 and senior citizens aged 65 or above is less than $2.0 after a 50% discount from the regular fare, the beneficiary is only required to pay the original concessionary fare; if the original full fare for Hong Kong residents aged 60 to 64 or eligible persons with disabilities is already less than $2.0, the beneficiary is also only required to pay the original full fare. Passengers are required to tender exact fare by cash or by Octopus card when boarding. No exact change will be given. Passengers may also use AlipayHK "EasyGo", Alipay, QuickPass, BoC Pay "RideCode", WeChat Pay HK or WeChat "Ride Code", Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay cards with inductive payment capabilities, as well as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Huawei Pay mobile payment platforms for fare payment. Passengers using the above payment method can only enjoy the interchange concessions with other Citybus solely-operated routes or the Citybus departures of the jointly-operated routes, and cannot enjoy the "Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme" nor the "Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities".

Bus deployments

This route is mainly served by Volvo B8L 12m (5230-5236, 8806-8829, 521XX), which has been retrofitted with an additional wheelchair parking space and is capable of carrying two wheelchair-bound passengers at the same time, supplemented by Enviro500 MMC 12m (8547-8567), its 12.8m version (6460-6499, 6700-6701), which is also equipped with a dual-wheelchair space.

Routing

To Tai Wai Station

To Tai Wai Station: The distance of this route is approx. 30.4km, and the journey time is approximately 70mins. (The average speed is 26.1km/h.)

via: Lung Ma Road (eastbound), roundabout, Lung Ma Road (westbound), Sha Tau Kok Road - Lung Yeuk Tau, Sha Tau Kok Road - Ma Mei Ha, Heung Yuen Wai Road, Fanling Highway, Tolo Highway, Tai Po Tai Wo Road, Nam Wan Road, Tai Po Road - Yuen Chau Tsai, Tolo Highway, Tai Po Road - Sha Tin, Sha Tin Road, Yuen Wo Road, Sha Tin Rural Committee Road, Tai Chung Kiu Road, Che Kung Miu Road, roundabout and Che Kung Miu Road

Citybus Route 79 (Queen's Hill Fanling → Tai Wai Station)
No.	Area	Road	Bus Stop Name	Remarks
1	Fanling (Queen's Hill)		Queen's Hill Estate
2		Lung Ma Road	Shan Lai Court
3	Lung Yeuk Tau	Sha Tau Kok Road - Lung Yeuk Tau	San Wai Barracks
4			Kwan Tei
5			Lau Shui Heung
6	Hung Leng	Sha Tau Kok Road - Ma Mei Ha	Ko Po
7			Hung Leng
8	Ma Mei Ha		Ma Mei Ha
9	Sha Tau Kok		Tai Tong Wu
10			Chun Yiu
Heung Yuen Wai Highway; Fanling Highway, Tolo Highway
11	Tai Po (Tai Wo)	Tai Po Tai Wo Road	Greenery Plaza	Section fare begins here Near Tai Wo Estate
12	Tai Po Old Market		Tai Po Old Market Playground	for Tai Po Centre, please alight at this stop
13	Tai Po Centre		Tai Po Mega Mall	Near Tai Po Centre
14	Tai Po Market	Nam Wan Road	Kwong Chi House Kwong Fuk Estate
15	Tai Po (Yuen Chau Tsai)	Tai Po Road - Yuen Chau Tsai	Kwong Fuk Estate
Tolo Highway, Tai Po Road - Sha Tin
16	Sha Tin Central	Yuen Wo Road	Wo Che Estate	Section fare begins here Near Sha Tin Sports Ground
17			Lek Yuen Estate	Near Yuen Wo Road Sports Centre
18	Sha Tin Wai	Tai Chung Kiu Road	Jat Min Chuen
19			Tsang Tai Uk
20	Sha Tin Tau	Che Kung Miu Road	Chun Shek Estate
21			Che Kung Temple
22	Sha Tin (Tai Wai)		Tai Wai Station

To Queen's Hill Fanling

To Fanling: The distance of this route is approx. 29.8km, and the journey time is approximately 70mins. (The average speed is 25.5km/h.)

Via: Che Kung Miu Road, Tai Chung Kiu Road, Sha Tin Rural Committee Road, Yuen Wo Road, Sha Tin Road, Tai Po Road - Sha Tin, Tolo Highway, Tai Po Road - Yuen Chau Tsai, Nam Wan Road, Tai Po Tai Wo Road, Tolo Highway, Fanling Highway, Heung Yuen Wai Highway, Sha Tau Kok Road - Ma Mei Ha, Sha Tau Kok Road - Lung Yeuk Tau, Lung Ma Road, Queen's HillPublic Transport Terminus, Lung Ma Road (eastbound), roundabout and Lung Ma Road (westbound)

Citybus Route 79 (Queen's Hill Fanling → Tai Wai Station)
No.	Area	Road	Bus Stop Name	Remarks
1	Sha Tin (Tai Wai)		Tai Wai Station
2	Sha Tin Tau	Che Kung Miu Road	Che Kung Temple
3			Chun Shek Estate	near Hong Kong Heritage Museum
4	Sha Tin Wai	Tai Chung Kiu Road	Tsang Tai Uk
5			Jat Min Chuen
6	Sha Tin Central	Yuen Wo Road	Lek Yuen Estate	Near Yuen Wo Road Sports Centre
7			Wo Che Estate	Near Sha Tin Sports Ground
Tai Po Road - Sha Tin, Tolo Highway
8	Tai Po (Yuen Chau Tsai)	Tai Po Road - Yuen Chau Tsai	Kwong Fuk Estate	Section Fare begins
9	Tai Po Market	Nam Wan Road	Tung Cheong Street Leisure Building
10	Tai Po Centre	Tai Po Tai Wo Road	Tai Po Mega Mall	Near Tai Po Centre
11	Tai Po Old Market		Lam Tsuen River Side
12	Tai Po (Tai Wo)		Tai Wo Estate
Tolo Highway, Fanling Highway; Heung Yuen Wai Highway
13	Sha Tau Kok	Sha Tau Kok Road - Ma Mei Ha	Chun Yiu	Section fare begins here
14			Tai Tong Wu
15	Ma Mei Ha		Ma Mei Ha
16	Hung Leng		Hung Leng	Section Fare begins
17			Ko Po
18	Lung Yeuk Tau	Sha Tau Kok Road - Lung Yeuk Tau	Lau Shui Heung
19			Kwan Tei
20			San Wai Barracks
21	Fanling (Queen's Hill)		Queen's Hill Estate
22		Lung Ma Road	Shan Lai Court
23			Queen's Hill Estate

Gallery

Remarks

Related articles

References

External links

Template:List of North District Bus Routes