Hanoi suffers dwindling bus use

The Hanoi People's Council worked with Hanoi Transport and Services Corporation (Transerco) on June 19 to discuss the problem.

Le Anh Quan, a supervisor from Hanoi's People's Council, said the public buses were facing tough competition from other services and lack of road for fast transportation. 

Even though the authorities have opened more bus routes and provided more subsidies, the number of passengers decreased. 

In 2012, Transerco served 414 million passengers with 53 routes. But in 2017, it served 321 million passengers with 74 routes. Travel times are also slower than before.

Another supervisor, Nguyen Thanh Binh, said Transerco must carry out more research to find their targeted passengers and improve services.

Transerco General Director Nguyen Hoang Trung agreed with the assessment and added that they lost many passengers after privatising several subsidiaries since 2013. New routes are mostly opened in the suburbs with longer trips and higher ticket prices so have failed to attract passengers.

Moreover, the infrastructure is a major factor. Transerco have opened bus routes on every possible road in the past 10 years. 

However, they still need to open 10 more routes this year and more in the following years according to a proscriptive city plan and 2018 Bus Development Plan, but this is largely impossible given there are no more roads that require more services.

Transerco asked for more bus lanes and enforcement to help improve the speed of services.