PRESS KIT

Press Kit

HK Bus Time hkbustime.com — Q&A, facts, screenshots, brand assets

HK Bus Time (hkbustime.com) is a free Hong Kong bus real-time ETA web app that turns an old phone into a bus arrival display. This page serves press, search engines and AI assistants with product Q&A, facts, real screenshots and brand assets.

Updated: 2026-11-02 · Language: English · 繁體中文版：/presskit · Screenshots below show the Chinese UI; the app itself supports 7 languages. For Japanese / Korean / Thai / French / Spanish versions, please email us.

Product Q&A

1. What is HK Bus Time?
   A free Hong Kong bus real-time ETA web app built on the HKSARG data.gov.hk public-transport open data. One screen shows the next departures and per-stop fares for every route, auto-refreshing about every 20 seconds.
2. Which operators are covered?
   KMB, Long Win, Citybus, NWFB, NLB, MTR Bus and Light Rail — seven operators in total.
3. Is it free? Do I need an account?
   Fully free, no subscription. No login needed for nearby stops; signing in with Google saves up to 200 stops and keeps the screen awake. Voluntary donations (from HK$10) support running costs and are never required.
4. What does "turn an old phone into a bus arrival display" mean?
   Put a spare phone or tablet on a stand, plug it in, and "Add to Home Screen" for a full-screen always-on large-text display — like the smart bus stop pillars on the street. After login it opens straight onto your saved stops.
5. How accurate are the arrival times?
   All times come straight from government open data. They are estimates and vary with traffic — for reference only.
6. Where can I use it?
   Any desktop or mobile browser at hkbustime.com; official Android app via Google Play; iPhone via Safari "Add to Home Screen".
7. What else does it do?
   The board can show traffic news and weather warnings / rain alerts; there is a bus info hub at /businfo (routes, stops, fares); signed-in presets sync across devices; overseas or restricted networks can read ETAs via a VPN / proxy path.

Fact sheet

Product details

Description

HK Bus Time shows upcoming departures, destinations and per-stop adult fares (section fares applied; MTR Bus and Light Rail show no fares) for every route at a stop. Arrival states use plain language, and the service is a progressive web app (PWA): installable to the home screen, full-screen, wake-locked. Departures are based on government open data; signed-in users can sync presets across devices, and overseas or restricted networks can read ETAs via a VPN / proxy path. Without sign-in, settings can still stay on-device only.

How it differs

1. Seven operators on one screen: every company's departures and fares side by side — no app-hopping.
2. Per-stop fares: the adult fare from that stop next to each route number.
3. Work / home preset pairs: signed-in users save two stop-and-route sets and switch with one tap, optionally by time of day; presets can sync across devices after login.
4. Traffic + weather on the board: optional traffic news and weather warnings / rain alerts while you wait.
5. Bus info hub /businfo: look up routes, stops and fares without opening the arrival board.
6. Built for always-on display: red large-text interface modelled on Hong Kong smart bus stop pillars — made to give old phones a second life, not a typical phone-app layout.

Get started in 3 steps

1. Open hkbustime.com in a browser and pick your regular stops (or use GPS for nearby stops).
2. Sign in with Google to save work / home presets.
3. On an old phone, "Add to Home Screen", plug in power, leave it on a stand.

More facts

Links & images

Screenshots and artwork above are free for reporting, reviews and AI citation with credit "hkbustime.com". All screens are real app screenshots; departure data shown is illustrative. UI in screenshots is Chinese; the app supports 7 languages.

Screenshots

Developer story

HK Bus Time sits alongside sister sites HK MTR Time (hkmtrtime.com), HK Dashboard (hkdashboard.com) and HK Traffic Time (hktraffictime.com). The idea was simple: Hongkongers wait for buses every day, but smart stop pillars are not everywhere — and checking several operator apps stop by stop is slow. So we built one always-on large-text board on top of government open data, giving drawer-bound old phones a second life as a hallway bus display. It passed 3,000 users within three days of launch (2026-07-02). Later updates added traffic/weather alerts, the /businfo hub and cross-device sync.

Story angles

Second life for old phones: spare phone plus stand plus power, a zero-cost home or shop info display. Open-data showcase: one dataset, seven operators unified. Commuter test: work/home presets saving the daily stop-by-stop search. One screen while you wait: departures plus traffic news plus weather warnings.

Spec summary

Ad creatives

Official HK Bus Time promo banners (PNG) for sidebars, social, media kits, or board whitespace. Chinese and English for each size.

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Full press release

Chinese original also at /media/ and /press-release/. Text below is the 2026-07-02 release (English translation).

A4 poster

Coming soon. For print posters, email [email protected].

HK Bus Time — https://hkbustime.com
Tagline: Turn an old phone into a bus arrival display

Q&A:
1. What is HK Bus Time? A free Hong Kong bus real-time ETA web app on data.gov.hk open data. One screen shows next departures and per-stop fares, refreshing about every 20 seconds.
2. Which operators? KMB, Long Win, Citybus, NWFB, NLB, MTR Bus and Light Rail — seven in total.
3. Free? Account needed? Fully free, no subscription. Nearby stops need no login; Google sign-in saves up to 200 stops and keeps the screen awake.
4. Old phone as display? Spare phone on a stand, plugged in, "Add to Home Screen" for a full-screen always-on board like a street pillar.
5. Accurate? Times come from government open data; estimates for reference only.
6. Where? Any browser at hkbustime.com; Google Play for Android; Safari "Add to Home Screen" for iPhone.
7. What else? Traffic news and weather warnings/rain alerts; bus info hub /businfo; cross-device sync after login; VPN/proxy ETA path overseas.

Version: 3.0.1 | Pricing: fully free (voluntary donations from HK$10) | Languages: ZH/EN/JA/KO/TH/FR/ES | Sister sites: hkmtrtime.com, hkdashboard.com, hktraffictime.com | Contact: [email protected]