Zone 7/8 route 673 (temporarily renumbered 73) runs between East Factory and East Door Bus Terminus. It is a route mostly running in Zone 7, serving the eastern part of Leafy Island and the new town of Haisey.
Level Requirement[]
- Unlocks after the rank reaches Level 72.
Overview[]
With planned expansion 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 connect with more places in Zone 7. This route will help reduce stress on CSB's network and provide direct service instead of previous 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 YiYan Road, Haisey and East Door by following the former route 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 that route 673 will run between, along with plans for another route to link Horizon Island and Leafy Island. Prior to this, passengers from Horizon Island travelling 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 will operate as a Zone 7/8 route, with service to and from Horizon Island temporarily suspended. Consequently, the service will run between East Factory and East Door Bus Terminus, while service to Zone 7 Interchange will also be suspended. CSB has redesignated this route as 73 until Horizon Island reopens. Meanwhile, Horizon Group will show trips to East Factory as diverted under the original route number, making it the only "intra-zone" route operated by Horizon Group.
- In addition, CSB Depot was removed on both directions. For the East Door bounded journeys, YiYan Park was added.
Timetable[]
| Form East Factory | |
|---|---|
| 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
| |||||
| 8 | Zone 7 (East Door) |
East Door Bus Terminus | 東門總站 | Returning Point Near East Door Complex | |
| 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 the Haisey update, all zone 6 services were provided by Horizon Group, resulting in a monopoly. This means that there are no longer any zones being serviced by a single operator.
- Due to the narrow road serviced by this route, only buses shorter than 11.3 m (preferably single-deck models) could be used, although the CSB Volvo B8L and New World First Bus' 12 m ADL Enviro500 have exposures for this route. According to the CSB Discord server, until May 31, 2024, staff in that specific group can face disciplinary action if they operate any vehicle longer than 11.3 m without permission on this route. This was lifted effective June 1, 2024 as larger double deck buses have been regularly put in service at shift change times.
- This route is the only inter-zone route that "lost" its first digit due to it being shortened to service Zones 7 & 8. In addition, it is the only one to have a different number based on operator.
- This route is shown as route 73 in the main menu.
Gallery[]
Link[]
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