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High oil prices drive up bus use
Entering the bus, Nguyen Hoang Linh, an employee of an import-export company in HCM City, folds her umbrella neatly in one hand and tries to hold on to something with the other.
It is one week since petroleum prices were increased and the first time she is going to work by bus instead of her Attila motobike. Linh lives in District 5, around 10km to her workplace.
“My bike guzzles too much petrol and I cannot afford it on my salary,” she said.
The price hike meant an extra 20,000 VND to her daily spending on transport. Going to work by bus, on the other hand, costs her a mere 6,000 VND.
She said her colleagues too have started to take the bus to work.
In fact, the whopping petrol price hike – of over 30 percent – has seen many people in HCM City begin to travel by bus.
Early reports from drivers said the number of commuters has increased by 10 percent.
Buses on route 8 from downtown to Thu Duc University Village have always been crowded with students. They are packed to the rafters now.
A driver on route 99 from Ben Thanh Market to the southern bus station said since the petroleum price hike more office-goers are boarding his bus.
Besides, 120 passengers are traveling daily compared to 100 earlier, he said.
General director of the HCM City Transport and Stevedores Cooperative, Phung Dang Hai, said there has been a slight increase in the number of passenger on some buses. He expected it go up further soon.
“It will surely increase sharply when the new school year starts,” he said.
Deputy director of the city’s Public Transport Service Control Centre, Le Hai Phong, however, refused to ascribe the increase in the number of people using public transport to the jump in petroleum prices.
“We need more time to collect reports from drivers and compare them with the same period in past years before coming to any conclusion,” he said.
But bus companies are worried about their very survival despite the increase in passenger numbers.
To cope with the higher fuel costs the Sai Gon Public Service Inter-cooperative plans to increase fares by 1,000 VND to 2,000 VND on some routes that are not subsidised.
Director of the city Transport Department, Tran Quang Phuong, said the city would consider paying bus companies half the subsidy in advance in August.
Thanhnien
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