Phuket Smart Bus to ride again

[snoop1130]

Phuket Smart Bus to ride again

By The Phuket News

 

The Phuket Smart Bus will start rolling again on Monday (Nov 16). Photo: PKSB / file

 

PHUKET:-- The Phuket Smart Bus will resume rolling from Phuket International Airport on Monday (Nov 16) and continue along its standard route down the west coast to Rawai Pier at the southern end of the island.

 

The service was stopped in March just before the island went into full ‘Tambon Lockdown’ and all foreign commercial passenger flights were banned from entering the country as a COVID-19 protection measure, Phuket Smart Bus Co Ltd (PKSB) General Manager Wanida Nimnuan explained to The Phuket News today (Nov 13).

 

Of note, Phuket Smart Bus was among the first to introduce ‘New Normal’ protection measures, with each bus cleaned with alcohol-based sanitiser after completing each run when the COVID-19 alarm sounded in January.

 

Full Story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-smart-bus-to-ride-again-77968.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2020-11-13

 

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[PETERTHEEATER]

It doesn't  stand a chance against the Immigration smart BMW.

[ourdon]

Good to see.  I found the service quite useful and am happy that  my rabbit card has a use again.  I always thought that the fact that you could go from Rawai to the airport in  Air conditioned comfort for 170 Baht another nail in the taxi mafias' coffin.

 

Now all i have to do is get  my saggy old butt back to Thai

Edited November 14, 2020 by ourdon

[Destiny1990]

1 hour ago, ourdon said:

Good to see.  I found the service quite useful and am happy that  my rabbit card has a use again.  I always thought that the fact that you could go from Rawai to the airport in  Air conditioned comfort for 170 Baht another nail in the taxi mafias' coffin.

 

Now all i have to do is get  my saggy old butt back to Thai

 And then from Rawai to Patong you will take a smart tuk tuk?

[Olmate]

3 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

 And then from Rawai to Patong you will take a smart tuk tuk?

Smart bus goes from Rawai to Patong sunshine .

Edited November 15, 2020 by Olmate
Add photo

[DFPhuket]

I wish them success, but with busses departing Phuket airport at 10am, noon, 3pm and 5:30pm I can't see how they plan to attract enough business to keep from losing money.

 

With the 20% discount offered by shared van services, the van cost will be less, you generally won't have to wait as long to depart, and the van would deliver you to your hotel rather than a bus stop. 

[ourdon]

1 hour ago, DFPhuket said:

I wish them success, but with busses departing Phuket airport at 10am, noon, 3pm and 5:30pm I can't see how they plan to attract enough business to keep from losing money.

 

With the 20% discount offered by shared van services, the van cost will be less, you generally won't have to wait as long to depart, and the van would deliver you to your hotel rather than a bus stop. 

 

Did they change the schedule???  The schedule above just put out by Olmate (which is the one i have on my phone) shows a bus leaving the airport hourly on the hour.

The bus was fairly empty when I started using it. By the time it shut down it was pretty even between Thai and tourist.  I just used my scooter  for local stuff and driving in to Phuket town.

Edited November 15, 2020 by ourdon

[Olmate]

34 minutes ago, ourdon said:

 

Did they change the schedule???  The schedule above just put out by Olmate (which is the one i have on my phone) shows a bus leaving the airport hourly on the hour.

The bus was fairly empty when I started using it. By the time it shut down it was pretty even between Thai and tourist.  I just used my scooter  for local stuff and driving in to Phuket town.

 

[Psimbo]

Positive news but as usual the first and other posts are negative. I'm betting all the negative comments are by people who never used it. This is a baby step in restoring the western coast bus service, which was slammed at the beginning with the usual naysayers going on about burnt out buses years ago (IIRC there was only one but that's by the by and become an urban exaggerated myth). It became more and more popular and was a transport success.

 

It's not just about the airport- plenty of local users were taking advantage of it and its far easier than having to get a bus into Phuket Town then back out to a west coast location.

 

Hopefully as people realize it is back in service it will get the support it deserves- as for the reduced amount of journeys that makes sense given the limited domestic flights at present.