Fares for Lamma Island, Cheung Chau ferries set to rise 12.5% as Hong Kong gov’t defends ‘moderate’ fee hike

2026-03-11 - 23:36

Ferries to Hong Kong’s outlying islands are set to increase next month, with fares for routes to Lamma Island and Cheung Chau expected to rise by 12.5 per cent. A Hong Kong Kowloon Ferry company ferry. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP. Fare adjustments will be made to six routes to areas including Cheung Chau, Lamma Island, Mui Wo and Peng Chau as part of a license renewal for Sun Ferry and Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry, which operate those routes. The government proposed a 12.5 per cent fare increase for one-way ferry trips between Central and three piers: Yung Shue Wan and Sok Kwu Wan on Lamma Island, and Cheung Chau. Meanwhile, the government proposed standardising the fares for regular and high-speed ferries for the Mui Wo and Peng Chau routes. Currently, fast ferry trips cost more than regular ferry trips. The change means fares will increase for regular trips but decrease for high-speed ones. For the Central-Mui Wo route, the department proposed setting the price of an an adult single-journey ticket at HK$33.5 from Monday to Saturday, down from HK$34.1, the cost of a fast ferry journey. Yung Shue Wan ferry pier. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP. The price on Sundays and public holidays is set to be HK$48.5, lower than the current fare of HK$48.9 for a fast ferry journey. Fares for the Central-Peng Chau route will be set at HK$31.9 from Monday to Saturday and HK$46.6 for Sundays and public holidays. Currently, the high-speed fares are HK$36.90 and HK$54.30 for those periods, respectively. ‘Minimal increase’ The Transport Department said in a document addressed to the Islands District Council that the fare hike is “moderate and represents only a minimal increase,” and takes into consideration the travel needs of residents and the financial viability of ferry operators. “If the rate of fare increase were to be further reduced, the financial pressure on ferry operators would continue to accumulate,” the department wrote in the document. Members of the Islands District Council discussed the proposal at a meeting on Tuesday. Some said that the proposed hikes could pose financial strain on elderly residents, who will no longer be able to pay a flat HK$2 fare for ferry rides after a revamp to a government subsidy scheme. Transport Department. File photo: Candice Chau/HKFP. Under changes to the public transport subsidy scheme set to take effect on April 1, authorities will scrap the flat HK$2 fare for commuters aged 60 and above. Elderly commuters will pay HK$2 for fares up to HK$10, while trips exceeding that amount will receive an 80 per cent discount instead. Yip Pui-kei on a Tuesday RTHK programme said that he and other Islands District councillors had tried to oppose the fare hikes. “The island residents feel they have no choice but to accept the fare hike, despite thinking that it’s still too much... for a daily expense,” he said in Cantonese. Curtis Chiu, the Transport Department’s principal transport officer for ferry and transit, said at the Tuesday meeting that the government had pushed back against the ferry operators’ proposed fare hikes of 20 to 30 per cent. Assistant Commissioner for Transport Louisa Fung made similar remarks on Wednesday, saying that the department had to balance ferry companies’ operating costs and residents’ demands. She also noted that the operators had initially requested fare hikes up to 30 per cent. “Both ferry service operators have been struggling financially,” she said in Cantonese. Setting aside government subsidies, the six ferry routes would log a loss of about 35 percent and 50 percent, she added. Fung also said that prices for multi-ride tickets would see a smaller fare increase of 8 per cent, which should be more tolerable for island residents compared with the increase for single-ride tickets.