A new public bus route, No. 61, connecting the Barra Public Transport Interchange with the Barrier Gate border checkpoint will start operating tomorrow, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) announced in a statement yesterday.
The Light Rail Transit (LRT) Taipa-Barra section will open on Friday next week. The LRT station at Barra is located next to the Barra Public Transport Interchange, which came into operation in December last year.
Facilities currently in use at the Barra transport hub include a public bus terminal, a carpark, and a parking area for heavy passenger vehicles, i.e., buses and tourist coaches, all of which are located underground.
According to yesterday’s statement, the new No. 61 route, which will be jointly operated by the city’s two public bus operators, TCM and Transmac, will run between 6 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. daily, with each trip departing every 10 to 20 minutes.
In the direction of the Barrier Gate checkpoint, the No. 61 route will cover The Riviera Macau residential building on Rua do Almirante Sérgio, the Ponte 16 casino-hotel, and the Qingmao checkpoint, before arriving at the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
In the direction of the Barra Public Transport Interchange, the No. 61 route will cover the Qingmao checkpoint, the Ponte 16 casino-hotel, and A-Ma Temple, before returning to the Barra transport hub.
2 current routes to revamp
Moreover, the statement said that with the LRT Taipa-Barra section to open, two current public bus routes serving the Barra neighbourhood will also be revamped from tomorrow, namely the No. 10A currently running between the Barra transport hub and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, and the No. 5AX currently running between Macau Tower and the Barrier Gate neighbourhood, with the aim of enabling LRT passengers to travel by public bus from the LRT Barra station to Nape and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal more quickly.
According to the statement, the TCM No. 10A and Transmac No. 5AX will be renamed No. 60 and No. 65 respectively from tomorrow.
The statement noted that the No. 10A runs along Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro (aka San Ma Lou in Cantonese), the city’s main thoroughfare, adding that the No. 60 will no longer travel along San Ma Lou.
When running between the Barra transport hub and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal, according to the statement, the No. 60 will travel from Nape to Macau Tower via the avenue running below the Macau-Taipa Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge (aka Old Bridge), and vice versa.
The No. 60 route will run between 6 a.m. and 11:45 p.m. daily, with each trip to depart every 10 to 16 minutes.
The statement noted that in the direction of Macau Tower, the current No. 5AX runs along Avenida do Dr Rodrigo Rodrigues in Zape, adding that the No. 65, which will also serve the Barra transport hub, will pass Nape instead.
In the direction of the Barrier Gate neighbourhood, the current No. 5AX runs past the Ponte 16 casino-hotel, while the No. 65 will travel along Nape, Comendador Ho Yin Park, and Avenida do Ouvidor Arriaga instead.
The No. 65 route will run between 6 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. daily, with each trip to depart every 10 to 20 minutes.
The current No. 5AX only runs between 6:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. from Mondays to Fridays.
This photo taken in September shows a man waiting for public bus at the Barra Public Transport Interchange. – Photo: Tony Wong
