Over 4K People Abusing Elderly Fare Transport Scheme

People 60 and over can ride public transport for HK$2

One of the perks of being a senior in Hong Kong is that taking public transportation is much cheaper. When people 60 years old and over take the MTR, bus, and ferry, it costs HK$2 (US$0.26) per ride. 

Naturally it's not surprising to see more elderly people riding 650 routes for buses and ferries, as well as the MTR railway network.

However, the authorities have found that over the past eight months, 4,260 rail passengers were fined for misusing the HK$2 fare concession scheme. 

The government has also found that over the last five years, 1,419 suspected cases of abuse of the scheme were uncovered during monitoring of buses, MTR, ferries, minibuses, trams and even buses to transport residents to and from their apartment blocks.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han even mentioned one passenger who was fined HK$14,000 (US$1,800) and had to pay around HK$2,000 in unpaid fares.

He said the Transport Department had asked operators to increase ticket checks and passenger identity verification, as well as strictly enforce penalties.

This is hard for frontline workers to enforce when there are lots of people getting on a bus or ferry, and also what can they do if someone doesn't pay up? 

The scheme costs the government around HK$6 billion in terms of reimbursement of costs to the transportation companies.

In order to make up for the shortfall, lawmaker Peter Koon Ho-ming suggests doubling the concession fare to HK$4 to keep the scheme sustainable. 

"Transportation fares have gone up by around 30 percent since the HK$2 scheme was rolled out. Is it feasible that we keep the concessionary fare at HK$2 and don't increase it? I think we should be more realistic when looking at this," he said.

Koon is the reverend who helped Chan Tong-kai who allegedly murdered his girlfriend in Taiwan and set off the anti-extradition protests in 2019...

Another lawmaker, Chan Siu-hung, suggested placing restrictions on the scheme, such as limiting the number of trips a person could make.

"Whatever it is going to be -- be it a fare discount, a limit on the number of rides or on the fare -- I hope the original purpose of the policy can be maintained, which is to encourage the elderly to go out more," Chan said.

More Reasons Not to Violate NSL

Tong is spending 9 years in jail, must pay HK$1.38M in fees

Last July, Tong Ying-kit was the first person to be convicted and sentenced under the national security law.

He was handed a six-and-a-half year sentence for the charge of inciting secession for carrying a large banner on the back of his motorcycle with the now outlawed slogan, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times".

Tong on July 1, 2020 with the subversive banner

Tong was also sentenced to eight years in jail for terrorism, for crashing his motorcycle into a group of police officers on July 1, 2020, injuring three. Of his two sentences, 2.5 years will run consecutively, which means the 25-year-old will serve nine years in total.

Now a year later, Tong has been slapped with a massive legal bill -- HK$1.38 million -- for two failed legal challenges.

It is impossible for him to pay this bill, and crowdfunding will probably be considered aiding and abetting.

We already saw this happen a few months ago when domestic helpers in Hong Kong were being fined HK$5,000 (US$637) for not social-distancing because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was no way they could pay the fine and an expatriate came up with a crowdfunding exercise called Helping Helpers to help pay for these fines.

Over HK$107,000 was raised in days.

Later the then Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong announced his department would consult the Department of Justice on the matter, claiming the fundraising effort was "maliciously obstructing our whole anti-epidemic effort".

Helpers fined HK$5K for not social-distancing

It is virtually impossible for helpers to pay these fines when they make a minimum salary of HK$4,630 a month.

The crowdfunding immediately stopped and all the money was returned to the donors.

So with Tong's case, it is obvious the government continues to weaponise the judicial system in a bid to further deter others into not challenging it in the courts.

In the meantime, in another sign that Hong Kong is suffering from a massive brain drain, job recruiters are having a hard time finding fresh graduates to fill entry-level positions across all sectors.

Anecdotally some recruiters said that previously their inbox would be filled with emails from young people looking for work, and now the tables are turned and it's the HR professionals trying to find anyone that fits the job description to go for the job.

They are not just looking for local residents, but also foreign students who have studied in Hong Kong, and know other Asian languages like Korean, Japanese, Hindi or Bahasa. 

Diverse pool of fresh graduates? Look again

Many have left because of Hong Kong's severe Covid-19 quarantine rules, making it very difficult for them to travel to see family or do business, while others are moving to places like the UK to start fresh.

In addition there are fewer international students interested in studying in Hong Kong. In 2019-20 there were 3,977, and 3,803 for the 2020-21 academic year.

Hong Kong is not a place young people want to be in anymore. And the government isn't making an effort to encourage them to stay.