The number of bus users in Ho Chi Minh City has dropped despite the city’s subsidy program to keep fares affordable.

The decline of bus passengers was high on agenda at a meeting between the Economic and Budget Committee under the municipal People’s Council and the Department of Transport on Thursday.

The city’s subsidy for bus fares is estimated to top VND1 billion (US$44,180) in 2016, Pham Dinh Duc, an official from the transport department, told the meeting.

In the meantime, the number of bus users in the year to date is recorded at 182.3 million, an 11.4 percent year-on-year drop, Duc added.

Under the subsidy program, bus tickets in Ho Chi Minh City range from VND5,000 – VND7,000 ($0.22 – $0.31), depending on route length.

According to Le Hoang Minh, deputy director of the city’s transport department, the drop in number of bus users has led to the decrease in bus fare subsidy.

“Buses in the city have not met the demand for transport of local residents,” Minh said.

“The fall in the number of users will also lower the income of bus operators, resulting in poor attitude during their service.”

The cycle continues when impolite manners of bus employees cause citizens to shy away from using this means of transportation, the official continued.

While many people’s council delegates believed that subsidized bus fares were necessary to attract more people to the service, Minh said careful evaluation must be conducted against the backdrop that the city coffers are being narrowed down.

The department deputy director also stressed the importance of reducing the fare, listing an example that a trip from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport to the downtown area would cost VND20,000 ($0.88) per passenger, which is too high.

“The targeted bus users are not only students and laborers, but also other people in the city,” the official stated. 

How to attract more users?

Buses should be allowed to travel on motorcycle lanes to reach their stops in a shorter amount of time, one delegate of the municipal People’s Council suggested as a way to help buses attract more passengers.

In response, Minh said such an idea is only viable when the vehicles and their exhaustion do not affect the safety and health of motorcyclists.

The official added that it was more recommended to construct a bus-only lane instead of letting buses to travel on the same lane with motorbikes.

According to Nguyen Van Dung, head of the Economic and Budget Committee, several buses are still in poor conditions, causing travelers to be less inclined to the public transport.

There must be practical measures to improve the quality of the vehicles, Dung said, adding that the buses should be arranged on certain streets based on the size.

Bus stops should also be upgraded while advertisement on buses should be multiplied to contribute to the local budget, he continued.

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