Court to rule on Wednesday over bus fare hike

By The Nation

 

Public buses at the Victory Monument on Monday//Photo by Tanachai Pramarnpanich

 

The Central Administrative Court will rule on Wednesday on a petition seeking a stay on the hike in public bus fares, which came into effect on Monday.

 

The court on Monday heard the petition by a group of Bangkokians and commuters led by activist Srisuwan Janya who had approached the court last week against the hike.

 

 

The petition was filed against a land transportation panel that approved the rise.

 

Srisuwan’s group also sought a court stay order on the increase in fares, pending the court’s investigation and orders.

 

Srisuwan told reporters on Monday that the increase was illegal and would affect poor people.

 

 

Monday’s court session saw heated arguments between both sides. Srisuwan claimed that the prices of oil and gas had not increased and 50 per cent of the overheads pertained to salaries and welfare of the employees. Therefore, it was not fair to push the burden of those expenses to the consumers.

 

After hearing both sides, the court scheduled Wednesday to rule on the petition.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30368138

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-04-22

Going to be interesting to see how this plays out, with BTS vying a price increase ahead of a 10 year period of price freezing I understand the frustrations of public transport users.

When will we see any investment in this type of transport, if the operators cannot make a small profit how will they up there standards?