Vietnam's HCM City reports fewer bus passengers
Xinhua, October 25, 2016 Adjust font size:
The number of bus passengers in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City has declined year-on-year in the last four years, the municipal Transport Department said Tuesday.
Buses in the city served 413.1 million passengers in 2012, some 411 million in 2013, about 367 million in 2014, and 334.5 million in 2015. The number of bus passengers in the first nine months of this year dropped 3.5 percent against the same period last year.
Main reasons for the decline include poor linkages between bus with rail and air transport, and sluggish construction of free bicycle and motorbike parking lots for bus passengers, and road blocks due to prolonged implementation of infrastructure projects.
This year, Ho Chi Minh City will replace 500 old buses with new ones running on 28 routes which receive price subsidy, and build up a smart electronic ticketing system, said the department's Public Transport Management Center.
The city currently has nearly 3,000 buses, many of which began running in the 2002-2007 period. Enditem