End of road for last periscope bus

Hong Kong’s last periscope-equipped double-decker bus took its final trip last night as the Kowloon Motor Bus company prepares retirement of the fleet after 20 years of operation.

It departed from Lok Fu heading to Kwun Tong Public Pier at 10.45pm on the 11D route.

The Volvo Super Olympian bus, nicknamed the “short pig” for its length of 10.6 meters, is the last KMB lineup with periscopic surveillance.

Its smaller and more agile stature allowed it to operate on routes with winding roads, including 273A.

The “short pig,” equipped with a periscope system, allowed bus drivers to keep an eye on the upper deck by reflecting an image of the top deck onto two mirrors, down to a panel at the top of the driver’s windshield.

Now all KMB buses will be fitted with digital wide-angle surveillance cameras instead.

KMB bus driver Lee Kam-fai said he had fond memories of the periscope system, which put him face to face with many mischievous bus enthusiasts.

“Lots of kids would tap on the glass panel upstairs to get the driver’s attention, and peek into the periscope,” he said.

“Sometimes I would have to ask people to take away their bags on the glass panel, so they wouldn’t cover the periscope lens.

“There was one time I saw two drunkards arguing through the periscope, so I had to pull over and tell them to stop.” Back in the fleet’s heyday, up to 100 Super Olympians traveled the streets of Hong Kong, carrying 109 passengers each.

Periscope systems can be traced back to the 1970s, when the bus operator first transitioned to driver-only-operated buses after the city’s double-deckers required up to three people – a driver, a bus conductor, and a door opener – to function. The bus operator began phasing out the periscopes in the 2000s when digital surveillance systems started to gain prominence

As part of the bus operator’s Donation of Used and Retired Bus Programme , two of the periscope-equipped buses have been donated to the Hong Kong and Macau Lutheran Church Ming Tao Primary School in Tiu Keng Leng and Cannan Kindergarten in Kowloon Tong to be converted into libraries for educational and conservation purposes.