The KMB Lai Chi Kok Depot (九巴荔枝角車廠, or 荔廠 for short), abbr. LCK Depot or LCKD, is located at 100 Hing Wah Street West, Stonecutters Island, Sham Shui Po District, with the emblem of the depot being an L. Therefore, it is also known as "L Depot", which is also known as the "Right Angle Depot" by bus fans in terms of the L angle.
The depot consists of two main components, namely a 6-storey administration building and a 3-storey maintenance depot for bus inspection, maintenance and parking. Located at a strategic location in West Kowloon, the Lai Chi Kok Depot manages more than 110 bus routes in Kowloon West (except Kai Tak), Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing districts, and provides maintenance services for over 1,000 buses and is equipped with a number of environmentally friendly facilities, making it one of the key assets that contribute to KMB's operational efficiency.
In addition, there are two satellite depots for buses under the Lai Chi Kok Depot, namely Tsing Yi Depot and Yuet Lun Street Depot. In the past, bus services in the Sha Tin District were also under the jurisdiction of Lai Chi Kok Depot until the opening of KMB's Sha Tin Depot in 1988.
History[]
Old Lai Chi Kok Depot[]
The KMB's old Lai Chi Kok Depot, once the oldest bus depot in Hong Kong, was located at New Kowloon Waterfront Lot No.3, 1 Po Lun Street, Lai Chi Kok, adjacent to the Lai Chi Kok Incinerator.
In 1959, KMB purchased the 140,250-square-foot site at a cost of $3 million to build a depot to accommodate 9-meter buses and to replace the bus maintenance process at the Camp Street Depot in Sham Shui Po. The old Lai Chi Kok Depot was opened in 1965 and is a 3-storey depot with a total gross floor area of about 35,900 square meters, with 32 maintenance pits and a bus parking area on the rooftop of the 2nd and 3rd floors for 200 buses.
Since the 1980s, the old Lai Chi Kok Depot has become outdated in terms of its maintenance pits and various maintenance equipment. Coupled with the fact that the side of the depot facing Broadway was in close proximity to Mei Foo Sun Chuen, the residents have often complained about the noise and other environmental nuisances caused by the depot. The old Lai Chi Kok Depot site was rezoned to "Comprehensive Development Area" under the Town Planning Ordinance in 1993 to make way for other developments.
Planning for a new Lai Chi Kok Depot[]
In 1997, KMB proposed to the Government that upon the commencement of the new franchise on 1 September, it would transfer the ownership of the original Lai Chi Kok Depot site to its wholly-owned subsidiary, which would then lease the site back to KMB at nominal rent to operate franchised bus services until the commissioning of a new, modernized depot on the West Kowloon Reclamation. By then, all the facilities of KMB's two temporary depots at Butterfly Valley Road and Yuet Lun Street would be relocated to the new depot.
All costs associated with the transfer of ownership of the old depot and the construction of the new depot was borne by KMB's shareholders and will not be passed on to passengers. Upon completion and relocation of the new depot, the original Lai Chi Kok depot site would no longer be required for franchised bus-related operations, and KMB was able to resell the site or redevelop it for other uses, and the Government eventually agreed to the above arrangement.
In planning for the construction of the new Lai Chi Kok Depot, KMB leased a site at 70 Hing Wah Street West from 7 July 1999 to 15 May 2004 for use as a temporary bus depot to replace the Butterfly Valley Road Depot, which was decommissioned on 17 January 2000, and which was returned to the Government for use as Blocks I and J of the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre of the Correctional Services Department (CSD). The KMB Kowloon Temporary Depot, which was opened on 6 December 1999, occupying an area of 23,300 sq.m. It is a satellite depot of Lai Chi Kok Depot and is mainly used for parking purpose with a capacity of 72 buses. The temporary depot is not equipped with any maintenance facilities and the maintenance team has to drive to the depot every night to carry out minor inspections and maintenance work on buses by appointment.
KMB held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Lai Chi Kok Depot on 19 September 2000, and the depot was expected to be completed by the end of 2001. On 29 May of the following year, an industrial accident occurred at the Lai Chi Kok Depot construction site. A 16-metre-long prefabricated concrete beam weighing more than 10 tons suddenly tilted and collapsed, with the steel reinforcement, a large prefabricated concrete slab and nine workers working on the beam falling 15 meters and crushing an odd-job worker on the ground, resulting in one death and nine injuries, and causing a delay in the construction of the depot.
Opening of the new Lai Chi Kok Depot[]
The new permanent depot was finally completed in April 2002 and opened on 11 May and renamed "New Lai Chi Kok Depot". The entire depot is supported by 835 precast beams, with a gross floor area of 44,374 square meters and a total gross floor area of 650,000 square feet. The 3-storey bus maintenance depot is equipped with an assembly line on the ground floor, which allows 8 buses to be oiled and washed at the same time, as well as 64 pits and 32 maintenance bays; and parking bays on the 3rd and 5th floors, which allow 107 and 162 buses to be parked respectively. The carparking spaces on 3/F and 5/F can park 107 and 162 buses respectively. In addition, the Lai Chi Kok Depot is equipped with the following environmentally friendly facilities:
- The depot building is constructed of prefabricated components;
- The car wash area on the ground floor is equipped with a water recycling facility where 70% of the water used for car wash is filtered and separated from pollutants for reuse;
- A chemical waste collection area complying with the requirements of the Environmental Protection Department has been set up on the second floor for the recovery of wastes such as used fluorescent tubes which are susceptible to chemical contamination; and
- Energy-efficient lighting systems are installed in the depot.
As there is a lack of restaurants in the vicinity of the Lai Chi Depot on Stonecutters Island, the depot canteen has become the designated place for many staff to have their meals every day, and it is open from 4:00 a.m. every day from Mondays to Saturdays (except labour holidays). In order to provide a more comfortable dining environment, the canteen was renovated after the Lunar New Year in 2016, with a brand new look. A TV set is installed on the wall to broadcast news and an electronic notice board to inform staff of the latest news, as well as free Wi-Fi service for one hour at a time to facilitate staff to browse the Internet for information.
Old Lai Chi Kok Factory transformed into luxury flats[]
The opening of the new Lai Chi Kok Depot in May 2002 signaled the end of the old Lai Chi Kok Po Lun Street Depot, which was subsequently demolished. Lai Chi Kok Estate, a subsidiary of KMB's parent company, Transport International, redeveloped the site into Manhattan Hill, a residential development with a total gross floor area of 1 million square feet and an estimated construction cost of over $1 billion[6].
Manhattan Hill was first offered for sale to the public in November 2006, with occupation commencing in July of the following year.
Jurisdiction[]
The main areas under the jurisdiction of the Lai Chi Kok Depot are Kowloon West, New Territories South West and Hong Kong Island, which comprise the following operational divisions:
- Hong Kong District, which mainly includes Hong Kong Island;
- District 1, comprising mainly Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, Tai Kok Tsui, Prince Edward, Sham Shui Po, Mei Foo, To Kwa Wan, Ho Man Tin and Whampoa; and
- District 2, which mainly covers Lai King, Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi.
Vehicles Assigned[]
The KMB depot currently manages a total of 850 buses and has an exclusive fleet of Scania K310UD (ASU), Scania K280UD (ASUD), and one-handed Euro 5 Enviro500 12m (ATEE). KMB's last two Dennis Dragon 9.9m (ADS) buses were also under the management of this depot, but have been retired from service in July 2017, making it the last depot in KMB to be operated entirely with low-floor buses.
Lai Chi Kok Depot's Tsing Yi Satellite Depot is a dispatching depot, which is mainly responsible for some KMB and LWB routes in Kwai Tsing and Tsuen Wan districts.
Minibus routes observed[]
| List of Green Minibus (GMB) Routes observing Hing Wah Street West outside KMB Lai Chi Kok Depot | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | Route No. | Origin | Destination | Service Type |
| Head Expand | 44M | Stonecutters Island (Government Dockyard) | Cheung Sha Wan (Cheung Lai Street) | Service on Monday to Saturday Morning to Afternoon Non-Peak Hours, Holidays and Daytime, observes this stop in both directions ● |
| Cheung Sha Wan (Cheung Lai Street) | Stonecutters Island (Government Dockyard) | |||
Related Incidents[]
- 23 June 2005: a Leyland Olympian (S3BL317/EB2620) was involved in a traffic accident near this depot for unknown reasons, and was retired early due to severe front end damage and age of the vehicle which was not repaired.
- 27 December 2019: At around 2:00pm, a Sun Bus-owned Neoplan Centroliner (ex-KMB AP146/KR6768) lost control and overturned on the rooftop of this depot, with no injuries.The bus involved in the incident was about to reach the retirement age of Euro III diesel non-franchised buses, and was therefore not repaired and retired early.
- 12 October 2020: A Neoplan Centroliner (KR6160) hit a staff member while reversing at this depot and police officers attended the scene. According to preliminary information, the driver and the injured were both officers of Sun Bus, and the injured had to be sent to hospital for treatment.
Public Relations (PR) Activities[]
- 10 January 2021: At 8pm, KMB co-hosted a music concert with Jer Lau (柳應廷), member of the male group MIRROR, on the roof level of this depot. The event was live-streamed on KMB's Facebook page and YouTube channel, and composer and singer Serrini was also invited as a guest.
Gallery[]
Related articles[]
- KMB Tsing Yi Depot
- KMB Yuet Lun Street Depot
- KMB Butterfly Valley Parking Site
- List of bus depots in Hong Kong
Notes and References[]
External Links[]
Template:List of KMB depots