Transport Department


The Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong is a department of the civil service responsible for transportation-related policy in Hong Kong. The department is under the Transport and Housing Bureau.
The Transport Department was created in 1968 as a separate department within the Hong Kong Government. Prior to 1968 it was assigned to the Transport Office under the Colonial Secretary's department.

History

The Transport Office was founded in 1965 within the Colonial Secretariat, initially with a staff of 23. The office was set up in response to the territory's worsening traffic problems, and was modelled after the systems in Britain and other Commonwealth countries, with the new department taking responsibility for vehicle registration and driver licensing. In 1968, it was spun off as a separate government department, and was renamed as the Transport Department.
In 1974, the department's headquarters moved from the Blake Block on Queensway to the new Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park Building. Around the same time, the department's Chinese name changed from "" to "" to avoid confusion with the similar Chinese name of the Traffic Branch of the Royal Hong Kong Police.
The department's role expanded significantly in April 1982, when it absorbed the Traffic and Transport Branch of the Highways Office of the former Public Works Department. Units that moved to the Transport Department at this time were responsible for traffic engineering, traffic control and surveillance, road safety, and traffic surveys.
In 2019, the Transport Department headquarters moved from Immigration Tower to the new West Kowloon Government Offices in Yau Ma Tei.

Role and responsibilities

The post of Commissioner for Transport is currently held by Mable Chan. The Commissioner reports to the Secretary for Transport and Housing.
List of commissioners: