SIMON AYRES tells the second part* of the life story of Lyndon Rees, the Welsh-born bus manager who moved to Hong Kong in 1969 and went on to set up one of the most successful bus operations in this booming Asian city
* Part One in Buses last month
In 1977, Lyndon Rees and six friends and associates in and around the Hong Kong transport industry set up a transport consultancy named Passenger Transportation Services (Asia) Ltd, trading as City Buses — later shortened to Citybus.
When he left China Motor Bus in 1980, he set out to turn this into a bus operator. ‘The plan was to start a small bus company to allow me to channel my enthusiasm into doing something better,’ he says. ‘They all knew I wanted air-conditioned buses and China Motor Bus wouldn’t buy them.’
He borrowed HK$90,000 from the Hong Kong Bank and bought the first bus, a Volvo Ailsa demonstrator from Bangkok. This was not just any Ailsa demonstrator but the double-decker originally registered THS 273M, the prototype exhibited at the 1973 Scottish Motor Show and operated originally in Alexander (Midland) blue and cream. It ended up with a Leyland engine.
John Blay, who had left CMB and was now working for Volvo in Bangkok, was invited back as…
