澳門巴士 Buses Of Macau
澳門，一個與香港一水之隔的沿岸城巿，島上雖然有現代化的高樓大廈，美輪美奐的賭場及酒店，但有著更多古色古香的建築物，以及不同的博物館，吸引來自各地旅客到澳門觀光。除了這些文化遺產及景點，澳門大大小小的賭場亦吸引了不少旅客，更成為澳門經濟主要命脈。跟香港一樣，曾經成為葡萄牙的殖民地，故此當於澳門遊覽時，除了中文，大部份指示或者名稱均以葡文顯示。
澳門本身由澳門半島，路環及氹仔兩個島組成。在一九七四年前，澳門半島及兩個離島以海路交通連接起來，直到首條澳氹大橋(嘉樂庇總督大橋)通車，渡輪服務亦由巴士取代，兩間分別以巿區及離島作基地，福利汽車有限公司及澳門海島市小輪船有限公司，亦得以進一步擴大本身網絡，並使巴士逐漸成為澳門街的主要公共交通工具。在大橋通車後，福利曾經由英國引進十一架二手雙層巴士，行走往返氹仔及路環的路線，當中包括兩架開蓬巴士。
到了一九八八年，兩間公司在取得專營權後便各自重組，而營運名稱亦改作新福利公共汽車有限公司及澳門公共汽車公司(澳巴)。受制於島內狹窄的街道，以及乘車模式影響，兩間巴士公司長期只使用單層巴士提供服務，尤其小型巴士長期成為主力車種，並提供非常頻密班次服務乘客。至於前述的福利雙層巴士，在大量空調小巴及大巴投入服務後，跟早年來自英國的古老單層巴士一同走進歷史裡。
隨著過去數年，多個娛樂場所落成，伴隨不斷增長旅客數量，加上澳門本身經濟發展，亦提供更多機遇予兩間巴士公司。不過來自各娛樂場所提供頻密方便的專車，以及隨之而來爭奪員工等多個因素影響，卻對澳門巴士服務造成不同挑戰及負面影響，服務質素顯得落後成為必然的果。為了解決供不應求的問題，加上原有巴士需要替換，兩間巴士公司開始引進更高載客量的巴士，以取代原有小型巴士作主力，以及減輕提供頻密班次的壓力，有趣的是，所引進的巴士都是由中國生產，而且成為了各自車隊中的主力成員。
到了二零零九年，為了改善澳門公共交通運輸整體服務質素，澳門政府宣佈一系列政策，包括由二零一二年開始興建的輕軌系統，連接關閘及北安碼頭，經過施工中途預到不同的困難而引致之延誤，首期氹仔段預計最終將於二零一九年完工通車。巴士服務方面，澳門政府將把巴士服務直接判予營運商，營運商按照既定合約條款提供服務，而除了新福利及澳巴外，新加了一間公司─維澳蓮運，營運澳門巴士服務。維澳蓮運由澳門殷理基集團及法國威立雅公司組成，而威立雅同時是全資擁有香港電車。新的巴士營運模式於二零一一年八月一日開始，透過重組路線，加密班次以及提供各線轉乘優惠，令澳門巿民能夠享用到價廉及高質素的巴士服務。
二零一三年十月一日深夜，維澳蓮發表聲明因長期虧蝕，加上政府未有調整服務費，所以宣佈申請破產。澳門交通事務局隨後接管維澳蓮運，以便在之後六個月維澳蓮運仍能提供巴士服務予澳門巿民。二零一三年十二月初，維澳蓮運正式宣佈破產，最終經過半年時間，二零一四年六月九日，澳門政府宣佈由同年七月一日起，由澳門新時代公共汽車股份有限公司接收及營運原由維澳蓮運營運的巴士服務及車隊。
七年過去，澳門公共巴士市場期間經歷多多少少的變化，只是到了二零一八年八月一日，營運商數目再次回歸基本步，由三家變成兩家，消失的是最新經營者新時代，其車隊及路線網絡將併入姊妹公司澳巴之內，同時令澳巴一躍成為澳門最大公共巴士公司。
以下分頁除對三間巴士公司，新福利，澳巴及新時代背景作基本介紹，各間公司車型基本資料亦將附以圖片作簡短介紹。
Macau, a coastal city that near to Hong Kong. Though there are a lot of modern building, newly build casinos and hotels, a lot of classical structure and different types of museums around Macau that attract tourists sight. Instead of these Cultural Heritages, the casinos in Macau is another mainstream for the Macau economy. Macau was once a colony of Portugal, therefore is not rare that the sign or name of landmarks in both Chinese and Portuguese.
Macau is composed of Macau Peninsula, Coloane and Taipa. the mean of traffic was by ferries before 1974. On 5, Oct., 1974, the commissioned of Macau-Taipa Bridge (Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho) changed the mode of traffic and started from that day, commuters can travel by bus to and from Macau and Taipa. Ferry service soon replaced by bus and both bus operators, Fok Lei and CTPEMI, and this also made a chance for them to expand their networks. One thing had to be mentioned, 11 second-hand double decker, including two open-top, were introduced from UK for running on service to and from Taipa and Coloane after the opening of the bridge.
Both bus operators undergone restructured after the new franchised launched in 1988, and they are known as Transmac and TCM respectively. The age of classic single and double decker serving in Macau street soon be a historical scenes. As the unique mode of traffic and the narrow conditions of Macau streets, minibuses were the backbone of both Transmac and TCM fleet to provide frequent service to passengers.
Benefited from the growth of Macau's economic and completion of different casinos project, the demand of public transport was dramatically increased. There should be more opportunities for both bus operators, but since many frequent free shuttles provided by different casinos and shortage of drivers, the service standard of public bus service become very poor. Introduction of full-sized single decker was one of the solutions to relief the pressure on providing high frequency and also as a replacement for those aging minibuses. Among those new buses introduced, almost all of them are manufactured in China.
In 2009, the Macau S.A.R. Government announced a series of policies to improve the public transport service standard. The construction of light rail system, linked with Portas Do Cerco and Pac On, was started in 2012 and finally, LRT system phase one is expected to be commissioned in 2019 as a result of a series of delay due to various difficulties encountered during construction.
Moreover, a new mode of bus service was introduced on 1 Aug., 2011 to upgrade the service standard by improving the bus frequency, re-routing and expand the bus-bus interchange networks. Three different bus operators, Transmac, TCM and Reolian provided bus service under the leading of Macau Government. The new bus operator Reolian is a joint venture of Veolia Transport RATP from France and HN Group based in Macau. Veolia also holding the Hong Kong Tramway Co. Ltd.
Reolian declared bankruptcy on 1 Oct., 2013 and as their statement said, this was a result of the great deficit and the fee paid by the Macau S.A.R. Government cannot be adjusted. As to maintain the normal bus service, Reolian was taken over by D.S.A.T of Macau until the end of Apr., 2014. In early Dec., 2013, Reolian was declared to be bankrupted by the court. The entire network and fleet operated by Reolian finally taken over by Macau Nova Era de Autocarro Publico, S.A. (New Era) since 1 Jul., 2014 and this contract was signed on 9 Jun., 2014.
After 7 years of the launched of new bus operation mode, we can see there were changes among the public bus market in Macau and since 1 Aug., 2018, the number of bus operators in Macau backed to the origin as New Era merged with sister company, T.C.M and the latter become the largest public bus operator in Macau.
You can have brief understanding about the background and the fleet of Transmac, T.C.M and New Era respectively with the help of photographs.