The Buses' Free-for-All and the 1933 Settlement The motor bus era, the tram's hedge and the exclusive franchises, 1919–1933
Research article The Buses’ Free-for-All and the 1933 Settlement The motor bus era, the tram’s hedge and the exclusive franchises, 1919–1933 Histsyn · Independent research Compiled 10 October 2026 · Endnotes and bibliography after The Chicago Manual of Style , 17th ed. Abstract The motor bus arrived in Hong Kong as a hotel amenity and left the decade as a state-licensed monopoly. This paper reads the whole arc in the colony’s own record. The first bus went onto the streets on 30 December 1919 — “Something new for Hongkong started yesterday” — and the Dragon Motor Car Co. ’s service from New Year’s Day 1920 ran “from the HONGKONG HOTEL to the REPULSE BAY HOTEL. RETURN FARE $2”; a 1930 retrospective credited the Hotels Company with “Hongkong’s first motor bus service” from the 1921 Race Meeting — two period claims, kept both...