New trams investor plans another line
08-04-2009
The new part-owner of the tram system, the French firm Veolia, plans to seek government permission to build a line on the Central-Wanchai reclamation.
This emerged after it was confirmed that the owner of the tram system, Wharf Holdings, had sold a 50 percent stake in Hong Kong Tramways to Veolia.
Tram services will be jointly operated by the two companies. The French firm said it had no immediate plans to raise fares.
Both Wharf and Veolia declined to reveal the total cost of the deal, saying the amount is commercially sensitive information.
"It's not the price we're talking about," the director of Wharf Transport Investments Frankie Yick told a news conference.
"We're talking about the knowledge and the expertise that Veolia can bring to Hong Kong tram services."
But Veolia's chief executive Cyrille du Peloux said the figure is a "double-digit million euro" and it "is far less than 100 million."
