Seminar examines better bus services in HCMC

– Local and foreign participants at a seminar on August 20 offered practical solutions to improving bus services in Ho Chi Minh City.

Prof. Kwang Sik Kim of the Republic of Korea ’s Sung Kyung Kwan University spoke about Seoul’s experiences, including the use of smartcards as well as the creation of a board to improve bus operations.

The board is made up of representatives from the local government, social organisations, businesses, experts and residents.

Le Trung Tinh, head of the city Transport Department’s Industrial Transport Division, put forward seven solutions to develop the bus system.

Preferential policies should be used for bus companies, including giving them exclusive routes. The bus subsidy would continue and the number of individual vehicles would be limited, Tinh said.

He said that a bus operating agency and an integrated public transport system should be established.

The international seminar was co-hosted by the HCM City University of Technology and Seoul-based Sung Kyung Kwan University.

HCM City currently has 31 enterprises, involved in bus service, operating 151 bus routes for a total length of 3,401 km. Of these, 117 routes enjoyed a subsidy and 34 are non-subsidised.

An estimated 296.2 million passengers took buses last year, a 16.9 percent increase over 2006, which met five percent of demand.

However, service quality remained poor, with bus attendants taking a discriminatory attitude to passengers who use different types of fares and buses skipping terminals and not sticking to schedules.-