A bus in HCM City. HCM City needs to develop a specific roadmap to improve access to public transport. (Photo courtesy of the Department of Transport)Le Do Muoi, Director of the Ministry of Transport’s Institute ofTransport Strategy and Development, said the city needs to develop the busnetwork and improve the quality of human resources operating buses.
Priority should be given to developing large capacity publictransport, including planned metro routes and a BRT system, he added.
It is vital to control personal vehicle usage in the city, whichrequires a specific roadmap with consent from residents.
According to Muoi, currently 57 out of 63 provinces and citiesacross the country operate public bus transport with Hanoi and HCM City havingthe most developed bus networks.
However, the market share of public bus transport remains verylow.
Current public transport in Hanoi meets 17% of local residents’travel demand, HCM City 9.2%, Hai Phong, Da Nang and Can Tho only 1%, and theremaining cities and provinces below 1%.
Le Trung Tinh, Chairman of the HCM City Passenger TransportAssociation, said it was vital to restructure the public passenger transportnetwork in the city.
The Department of Transport needs to submit to the People’sCommittee a plan to improve public transport in the city, including how to seekinvestment in public transport, he said.
For the subsidy policy, it is necessary to have a long-term policysuch as five or 10 years instead of each year, he said.
In addition, HCM City needs to study about priority roadsdedicated to buses to improve bus service, he added.
Vo Khanh Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Transport,said the city administration in 2020 approved a 400 trillion VND (17.3 billionUSD) project to improve access to public transportation and limit the use ofpersonal vehicles over the next decade.
The focus will be on developing the bus network, includingenhancing inter-provincial connectivity.
Under the project, public transportation would meet 15% ofresidents’ travel demand by 2025 and 25% by 2030.
By 2025, the city targets having the bus system connected with newurban areas, industrial parks, satellite urban areas and passenger transportroutes.
To improve bus services and increase ridership, the department isexpected to open public bidding for bus routes.
As many as 50-60 new routes are expected to start by 2025,increasing to around 75 by 2030, and the number of buses would double in thenext 10 years, he said.
Priority will be given to vehicles that use clean andenvironment-friendly fuels such as CNG, LPG and electricity.
The quality of human resources operating buses will be improvedand the management and operation of public transport systems will bemodernised.
The city now has 128 routes, including 91 subsidised ones, andnearly 2,109 buses.
Every year, the city provides subsidies of 1 trillion VND (43million USD) to bus companies.
A new inter-provincial bus route connecting HCM City and theprovinces of Long An and Tien Giang will open on August 1.
Nguyen Hong Thanh, Deputy Director of Tien Giang province’sDepartment of Transport, said the MST 63-1 bus route is being established bythe collaboration of three transport departments in the localities involved,and will be operated by Phuong Trang Transport and Tourism JSC.
“This is the first non-subsidised bus route linking toneighbouring localities in the province,” he said.
Bus ticket prices are from 12,000-70,000 VND (0.5-3 USD) per trip,depending on the distance of travelling. Subsidised tickets for students in TienGiang are only 7,000 (0.3 USD) per trip.
The route will start from Tan Phu Bus Station in HCM City’s Tan Phudistrict, run through Long An province, and stop at Tien Giang Bus Station inTien Giang province’s My Tho city.
It will operate between 5am and 6pm daily.
The buses running on this route are allowed to pick up and drop offpassengers at all existing public bus stops in HCM City and Tien Giang.
In Long An, they are only allowed to pick or drop off passengersat Vinh Loc 2 Industrial Park, Ben Luc Economic and Technical IntermediateSchool, Ben Luc Market, the crossroads on the bypass around Tan An city and LongAn Pedagogical College./.
VNA
