In early 1990 Kowloon Motor Bus ("KMB") started to operate "Point-to-point" franchised bus services that normally provided by non-franchised residential bus service operators previously. The features of this kind of services include more direct routeing and less intermediate stops. As a result, buses with less capacities than double-deckers were needed to run on these routes. In the early days KMB found it difficult to source a suitable model of these "midi-buses". The Company first purchased Toyota Coasters with only 24 seats, and afterwards acquired Hino RKs of both bus and coach versions from Argos on lease basis. In mid-1990, Mitisubishi FUSO MK117J provided the solution. The price of the buses was less expensive than those of European midi-buses and the performance was acceptable. Finally KMB has purchased more than 180 Mitsubishi MKs. Among them there are 3 models, MK117J (AM1-168), MK217J (AM169-183) and MK218J (AM184).
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