KMB Kowloon Bay Depot Open Day

KMB organizes depot open days irregularly to let children know more about bus operation, unlike other companies in HK. Open days were previously held in Shatin Depot under the name of "Bus Captain of the Year Ceremony", but this year the open day was rather like a "KMB learning day" and was held in Kowloon Bay instead. Having been to these events in the past, I felt kinda bored but I still went and have a look.

To me, it's a bit disappointing this time since no old bus (except open-top Daimler E AD7315, which I had seen quite a lot) was present. No ADS, no 3N... But KMB is showing brand-new buses which are not even registered yet, like the BYD K9R and ADL E500MMC Coach and Volvo B9TL .

Frankly speaking, we can see E500MMC and B9TL so easily on the street so I was't giving a damn. However, the BYD and Man A95 are something not so usual. Let's see.

The BYDs are newly arrived as prototype and they are the improved version of the K9A KMB previously tested. The interior was quite similar to that of K9A, except there are some weird useless windows on the K9R. The bodywork was designed and constructed by Gemilang, but that surely looks terrible.

And here we have Man A95 in the depot. It will be replacing existing Man 24.310 and possibly Neoplan.

It has a modern design and tall interior, but my friend said it has unsatisfactory performance on Tuen Mun Road...

The only thing that I indeed enjoyed in this event was the free open-top bus ride.

Sun Bus operated a short ride around the bus depot using Dennis Trident with ZF gearbox, a.k.a the best config of trident in HK. The ride was so fun cuz the driver drove fast, even though the trip was not long.

Anyway, this kind of depot open day provides a valuable chance for us to have a glimpse of bus maintenance, and that's surely fantastic to bus fanatics!

#KMB #Bus