Hong Kong bus route numbering

A bus route sign at the Repulse Bay stop, with both Citybus and NWFB routes shown

In Hong Kong, public bus, public light bus (also known as green minibus) and residential bus routes bear their own route numbers.

Public buses

The numbering systems of public buses can be classified into Hong Kong Island routes, Kowloon and New Territories routes, Lantau Island (New Lantao Bus) routes, MTR Feeder Bus routes, Cross harbour bus routes and Airport and North Lantau external bus routes. Their route numbering systems are independent. For example, there are both route 1, and route 2 on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Lantau Island respectively.

In the past, the air-conditioned bus routes were numbered as 200's (Kowloon and New Territories) and 500's (Hong Kong Island). However, this identification became void after they phased out all the non-aircon buses; and since then bus routes has been playing around with the old numbers.

At one time, there were two "N11" bus routes in Tung Chung, namely, Airport overnight route N11 and Lantau Island overnight route N11. The latter is no longer in service.

The "A" for MTR Buses stands for auxiliary routes, not airport routes.

Public light buses

The numbering systems of public light bus (green minibuses) are classified into Hong Kong Island public light bus routes, Kowloon public light bus routes and New Territories public light bus routes. There are no public light bus in Airport or on Lantau Island. Their route numbering systems are independent too. However, for cross harbour public light bus routes, the route numbers from Hong Kong Island or New Territories are used instead.

Residential buses

Residential bus routes are the routes which are requested to operate by the residents or estates community. At the past, the route numbers are with a suffix "R". The first residential bus route was route 88R from City One Shatin to Kowloon Tong (MTR) (it was then renumbered 62R). From c. 2003, the route numbers have been changed as prefix "HR", "KR", and "NR". They stand for Hong Kong Island residential bus routes, Kowloon residential bus routes and New Territories residential bus routes respectively. There is no residential bus services on Lantau Island (except Discovery Bay) and the Airport.

Route numbering system for public buses

3 digits

Note that xx represents numbers.

• 1xx: Cross-Harbour Tunnel routes
• 2xx & 5xx: Existing air-conditioned bus routes (Before 2010)
• 3xx: Some peak-hour only cross-harbour routes (except for 307) / Hong Kong Island recreational or special bus services
• 6xx: Eastern Harbour Crossing routes
• 7xx: Some Island Eastern Corridor routes / NWFB West Kowloon or Tseung Kwan O routes
• 8xx: Sha Tin Racecourse routes
• 9xx: Western Harbour Crossing routes

Alphabet prefix

• Prefix A: Airport deluxe bus routes^[1][2] (except MTR Feeder Bus route A73, which was an auxiliary route, now canceled)
• Prefix B: Border routes
• Prefix E: North Lantau external bus routes^[3][2]
• Prefix H: New World First Bus Rickshaw Sightseeing Bus routes
• Prefix K: MTR Feeder Bus (formerly KCR Feeder Bus) routes
• Prefix M: Some bus routes that are terminated at an Airport Express station
• Prefix N: Overnight bus routes
• Prefix P: North Lantau peak-hour only routes: P12, P21 and P22 (all canceled)
• Prefix R: North Lantau recreational bus routes (for Hong Kong Disneyland)
• Prefix S: Airport shuttle bus routes^[4][2]
• Prefix T: Recreational bus routes (T stands for tourists)
• Prefix X: Express routes for special services

Alphabet suffix

• Suffix A, B, C, D, E, F: Conventional routes
• Suffix K: Mainly connecting to East Rail Line (formerly KCR East Rail) stations of MTR
• Suffix M: Mainly connecting to the stations of Kwun Tong Line, Island Line, Tsuen Wan Line and Tseung Kwan O Line of MTR
• Suffix P: Peak-hour only routes (except KMB 8P, 276P, NWFB 8P, 18P, Long Win Bus A41P and New Lantau Bus B2P, which are for whole day service)
• Suffix R: Recreational bus routes
• Suffix S: Peak-hour only routes or special services (except NWFB 796S, which is for whole day service)
• Suffix X: Express services

Brief list

• Routes or route ranges marked italic indicates that the route (or all the routes in the range) have been canceled already.

See also

• Transport in Hong Kong
• List of bus routes in Hong Kong

References

Bus companies of Hong Kong Bus services Bus route numbering History of bus transport Franchised Citybus Kowloon Motor Bus Long Win Bus New Lantao Bus New World First Bus Non-franchised The Big Bus Company China Motor Bus MTR Bus (Northwest New Territories) / MTR Feeder Bus Airport Express Shuttle Park Island Transport Transport in Hong Kong Public light bus Bus terminuses List of bus routes

Bus routes in Hong Kong Bus services Bus route numbering History of bus transport New Lantau Bus NLB Route 1 NLB Route 4 Citybus route 1 route 3B route 5 route 12 route 12A Cityflyer route A10 route A12 New World First Bus route 2 route 4 route 8 route 13 route 720 route 798 Kowloon Motor Bus route 1 route 1A route 5 route 51 route 66 route 69X route 70 route 71B route 78K route 87P route 89 route 91M route 238M route 249X route 272K route 278X route B1 route K14 MTR Bus MTR Bus Route K75 Transport in Hong Kong Bus terminuses Hong Kong bus route numbering