Hong Kong bus route numbering

Updated on Dec 10, 2023

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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.

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 (except MTR Feeder Bus route A73, which was an auxiliary route, now canceled)

Prefix B: Border routes

Prefix E: North Lantau external bus routes

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 NA: Overnight Airport deluxe 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

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, Citybus A29P, 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

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.

References

Hong Kong bus route numbering Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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