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China Motor Bus Company Ltd. (, company in Hong Kong . It is now mainly involved in property development after its Franchise lapsed in 1998 . HISTORY The company was founded in 1924 by Ngan Shing Kwan to provide services on Kowloon Peninsula . In 1933 CMB was granted a " Franchise " (i.e. a ''de Jure'' Monopoly ) by the Government Of Hong Kong to operate routes on Hong Kong Island . After the Second World War , the network of CMB's routes expanded with exploding population on the island. New buses were purchased to increase ridership. Since mid- 1970s , CMB buses were traditionally painted with a Buff upper body and a blue lower body livery. With the opening of the MTR in the 1985 , and CMB's reputation of outdated ethos and poor services over the years, ridership on CMB declined. (DL-class), except those in training bus fleet, retired before 25 December 1999.]] In addition, on 29/30 November 1989, CMB employees started a massive strike, after broken negotiations on their pensions funds. During the strike, all CMB services on the island were halted, to the extent that the government was forced to use police vehicles to facilitate Commuting to and from the Southern District . After the incident, the relationship between CMB and the government was worse, leading to them to think about introducing competitors to operate franchised routes on the island. Mean while, competitors such as Citybus had successfully lured passengers from CMB's franchised routes to their own residential routes. The establishment of route 37R as a residential route by Citybus illustrates this fact. The service provided more comfortable seats, air-conditioned fleet, and a more direct route (via Aberdeen Tunnel ) from Chi Fu Fa Yuen to Central . Citybus was able to compete against CMB by charging only the fare of non-air-conditioned, uncomfortable and indirect CMB counterparts like routes 40 and 37 (which took Pokfulam Road instead). The residential route was later converted into a franchise route, 37M, that still continued to be operated by Citybus. In 1993 and 1995 , the government had CMB's 26 and 14 routes respectively removed and put into public tender, with Citybus overtaking those routes. Eventually the company lost its franchise in 1998 , which were taken over by New World First Bus . CURRENT STATUS Its main business is currently Real Estate development. Meanwhile, the company is operating a free shuttle bus service between Island Place (one of the CMB's real estate developments) near the North Point MTR Station and North Point Government Offices . A Volvo B6LE , acquired from Citybus, along with eight Dennis Dart "Coach Express" are currently utilised for this service. FLEET .]] Besides the eight Dennis Dart Coach Express retained to operate the free shuttle service mentioned above, most of the fleet was transferred to New World First Bus in 1998 after the end of CMB's franchise. Two Volvo Olympian air-conditioned buses were sold to Citybus at half price in 2002 ( {Link without Title} ), and Citybus, in turn, gave up one of its single-deck buses (the Volvo B6LE now used in the shuttle) to CMB for free. Some of the buses transferred to New World First Bus were even shipped to , and function as tour buses and school buses. Historical fleet (post war):
Current fleet:
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