Zone 6/7/8 route 673 (temporarily renumbered 73) runs between East Factory and East Door Bus Terminus. This route will form part of the expansion of Horizon Island, which has been neglected - although it is mainly a Zone 7 route serving the eastern part of Leafy Island and serving the new town of Haisey.
Overview[]
With planned increases to the size of Horizon Island, a new district in Leafy Island and anticipated population growth, more people are expected to work in Leafy Island, commuting to/from Horizon Island and therefore the island will need bus service to more places in Zone 7. This route will help reduce stress on CSB's network and eliminate a necessary transfer at Senpai (for passengers travelling to/from East Door) during service periods.
Route 673 serves Zone 7 Interchange, Leafy Bay, Leafy Hospital, Praya Yi Yan Town, Haisey and East Door by following the former 74A routing and operates as a circular, according to official media. Originally, the route also served all stops on Horizon Island.
Due to the steep hills and tight turns of Leafy Bay, Horizon Group will also add more single deck buses to its fleet as double deck buses are not recommended for operation, while vehicles longer than 11.3 m were restricted from this route. However, this restriction was lifted on June 1, 2024 after extensive testing with AMNX MAN A95 buses.
An interesting part of route 673 is that it will serve Haisey on trips towards East Factory only. These stops were originally served on trips towards Horizon Bus Depot prior to June 1, 2024.
On 5/2/2021, GS9019 finally confirmed that CSB will operate 673 (then he edited the wiki). This service will be co-operated by Cityscape Bus and Horizon Group.
History[]
- On January 16, 2021, addisonshiu requested LED exposures to be made for the NWFB E500, practically confirming the two locations route 673 will run between, alongside plans for another route to link Horizon Island and Leafy Island. Prior to this, passengers from Horizon Island going to areas in Leafy Island other than Senpai were required to transfer at Senpai or Zone 7 Interchange.
- In another announcement by addisonshiu, the route would be expected to begin service by February 6, 2021 with the new East Door update.
- On February 3, 2021, a finalized overview of the route was released, where route 673 will serve as a connection from Horizon Island to East Door via the southern areas of Leafy Island, replacing route 74A.
- On February 6, 2021 at 10:00 pm GMT+8, route 673 commenced.
- Effective June 1, 2024, route 673 now operates as a Zone 7/8 route with service to/from Horizon Island temporarily suspended. As a result, service runs between East Factory and East Door, with service to Zone 7 Interchange suspended. Consequently, CSB has redesignated this route as 73 until Horizon Island reopens, while Horizon shows trips to East Factory as diverted with the original number, making it the only "intra-zone" route the latter operates.
- In addition, CSB Depot was removed on both directions. For the East Door bounded journeys, YiYan Park was added.
Timetable[]
| To East Door | |
|---|---|
| Service Hours | Headways (Min) |
| Mondays to Fridays | |
| 07 | 20、50 |
| 09:00、10:15、11:30、12:45、14:00 | |
| 15 | 30 |
| 16 | 00、30 |
| 18 | 00 |
| Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays | |
| 09:00、10:15、11:30、12:45、14:00 | |
| 15 | 15 |
| 16 | 30 |
| 18 | 00 |
Stops[]
| CSB and HZSI Route 73 (East Factory ↺ East Door) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Area | Street | Stop Name (English) | Stop Name (Chinese) | Remarks |
| 1 | Zone 7 (YiYan) |
East Factory | 東廠 | Temporary Stop | |
| 2 | YiYan Road | YiYan Park | 葉欣公園 | ||
| 3 | Diamond Trading Tower | 鑽石交易塔 | |||
| 4 | Sindy Garden | 新地花園 | |||
| 5 | Zone 7 (Leafy Bay) |
Leafy Bay | 葉角灣 | ||
| 6 | YiYan Road | Leafy Bay Cemetery | 葉角灣墳場 | ||
| 7 | Leafy Hospital | 葉角醫院 | In Leafy Hospital area uphill | ||
 Leafy Road, East Door Tunnel, South Bay Highway; South Bay Road
| |||||
| 8 | Zone 7 (East Door) |
East Door Bus Terminus | 東門總站 | Returning Point | |
| South Bay Road | |||||
| 9 | Zone 8 (Haisey) |
Forth Street | Haisey Point | 海西角 | |
| 10 | Haisey Estate | 海西邨 | |||
| South Bay Highway, East Door Tunnel
| |||||
| 11 | Zone 7 (Leafy Bay) |
Leafy Hospital | 葉角醫院 | In Leafy Hospital area uphill | |
| 12 | YiYan Road | Leafy Bay Cemetery | 葉角灣墳場 | ||
| 13 | Leafy Bay | 葉角灣 | |||
| 14 | Zone 7 (YiYan) |
Sindy Garden | 新地花園 | ||
| 15 | YiYan Praya Road | Praya YiYan Road | 葉欣海旁道 | ||
| 16 | Southern Building | 南洋大廈 | |||
| 17 | Rainbow Plaza | 彩虹廣場 | |||
| 18 | East Factory | 東廠 | Temporary Stop | ||
*Note: Stops between East Factory and Horizon Bus Depot have been omitted until the completion of the Horizon Island revamp.
Bus Deployments[]
A total of 2 single-decker buses were assigned to this route. The vehicle types are distributed as follows:
• 1 Alexander Dennis Enviro200
All 2-door single-decker buses are only deployed during Weekdays peak hours for a smoother alighting and boarding when the demand is higher.
Usage Status[]
As the routing of 673 is almost the same with other routes (except Haisey Point), there were only a few passengers using it, with some trips running without passengers. Ridership, however, has increased since trips have been shortened to East Factory and follow the former 74A routing, especially at shift change times. This allows passengers to/from eastern Leafy Island and Haisey to mostly bypass Senpai on their commute.
Trivia[]
- Route 673 is the first route on Horizon Island to have a bus company other than Horizon Group running it. Prior to this update, all zone 6 services were provided by Horizon Group (thus having a monopoly). This means that there are no more zones being serviced with one operator.
- Due to a narrow road serviced by this route, buses shorter than 11.3 m (preferably single deck models) could only be used, although the Volvo B8L and New World First Bus' 12 m ADL Enviro500 have exposures for this route. According to the CSB Discord server, staff in that specific group can face disciplinary action if they run any vehicle longer than 11.3 m without permission on this route. Since June 1, 2024, double deck buses operated by both CSB and Horizon have regularly operated this route, meaning that such restrictions were lifted.
- This route is the only inter-zone route that "lost" its first digit due to it being shortened to service Zones 7 & 8.
Gallery[]
Link[]
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