China Motor Bus

Ngan Shing-kwan and Wong Yiu Nam formed the China Motor Bus Company, Limited, in 1923 to provide transport services in the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong. Prior to this, Ngan had operated a rickshaw business also within the Kowloon Peninsula. In 1933, the company received an exclusive bus franchise agreement from the Government of Hong Kong to operate routes on Hong Kong Island.

After World War II, the network of CMB's routes expanded alongside exploding population on the island. New buses were purchased to increase ridership. In the late 1970s, a livery of a buff upper body and a blue lower body was adopted. CMB adopted a policy of improving its service during the 1970s, by introducing a new type of rear-engined bus (Daimler Fleetline) and reforming the route number system. In 1976 CMB earned over $20 million HKD, the highest profit in the company's history.

With the opening of the MTR Island line in 1985, and CMB's growing reputation of poor services, CMB ridership began to decline. On 29–30 November 1989, CMB employees organised a strike, after negotiations on pension funds broke down. During the strike, all CMB services on Hong Kong island were halted. This forced the government to use police vehicles to replace services for commuters travelling to and from the Southern District of Hong Kong. After this incident, the relationship between CMB and the government worsened, leading to the government to adopt more directive policies in respect of CMB.

Meanwhile, competitors such as Citybus Limited had successfully lured passengers from CMB's franchised routes to their own residential routes. Their services provided more comfortable seats, an air-conditioned fleet, and a more direct route (via the Aberdeen Tunnel) from Chi Fu Fa Yuen to Admiralty. Citybus were able to compete against CMB by only the fares on routes which paralleled the more uncomfortable and indirect CMB counterparts.

In 1993, the government redistributed 26 of CMB's routes to Citybus, citing poor service levels. In 1995, a further 14 were transferred.

In February 1998, the government announced the franchise for all 140 routes operated by CMB would not be renewed when it expired on 31 August 1998. Eighty-eight of the routes were placed to open tender, 12 routes were transferred directly to Citybus, one cross-harbour route to Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited (KMB), and the remaining routes were cancelled.

A joint venture named New World First Holdings (NWFH), later New World First Bus Company, (NWFB), was formed by the Hong Kong-based NWS Holdings and UK based FirstGroup plc. Despite being a dark horse candidate, and never having operated transport routes before, NWFH won the tender for the CMB routes and commenced operations with around 50 new buses and 710 former CMB buses. In 2020, NWFB was acquired by Bravo Transport, the current owner of CityBus. In 2023, Citybus and NWFB were merged with the NWFB brand being retired.

Besides the eight Dennis Dart Coach Express retained to operate the free shuttle service, 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 retained, being sold to Citybus in 2001 with a Volvo B6LE acquired in return.

Some of the buses transferred to New World First Bus were later sold to City Sightseeing in Australia and The Original Tour in London.

Historic

Partial list of historic bus types operated by CMB:

Leyland Olympian