Phuket Smart Bus grinds to a halt – again

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Phuket Smart Bus grinds to a halt – again

By The Phuket News

 

Phuket Smart Bus is out of action again due to lack of tourists. Photo: Shela Riva / file

 

PHUKET: The Phuket Smart Bus has stopped running, again, due to the lack of people on the island using the service

 

 

 

The Smart Bus stopped playing its way from the airport to Rawai yesterday (Jan 19).

 

The Phuket Smart Bus is the only true form of public transport on the island that carries passengers from one tourism beach resort town to another all along Phuket’s west coast.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-smart-bus-grinds-to-a-halt-again-78720.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2021-01-21

 

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[Tropicalevo]

Shock! Horror! Lack of tourists stops the tourist smart bus.

Who would have thought it?

I guess that someone was not so smart after all.

It would be funny if it was not so sad for the people of Phuket.

[petermik]

Mothball it for 6 months or so.. should be fine after that ????

[Deli]

We all know how is to blame, don't we ?

[Unify]

I had a Thai friend take it from Rawai to the airport the other day. She asked several people along the route, when it was running, as the schedule info on the bus stop differed from the schedule info on the web site.

 

No one had even heard of it. She asked two street vendors whose businesses faced the street and both claimed there wasn't any bus. She asked a waitress and the waitress said she'd never seen nor heard o if it. A few minutes later, the big, blue, modern bus rolled by the windows of the restaurant.

 

When the time came to ride the bus, my friend was the lone passenger.

[thequietman]

3 hours ago, petermik said:

Mothball it for 6 months or so.. should be fine after that ????

Park it in the warehouse where the new Bangkok fire engines are. Or maybe in the Hangar where the blimp is, that doesn't work. Maybe park it beside the aircraft carrier that is too short for jets to take off. Last option - park it in the shed where they keep the useless bomb detectors.

 

Many options for storage until the tourists never come back. ????

[Old Croc]

Hardly surprising that a service principally created to transport tourists cheaply from the airport to their main destinations has to close down. 

Virtually all tourist related businesses on the Island have been forced to shut their doors with the almost complete absence of international travellers.

Hopefully the service will be able to resume when (if) the world returns to normality.

 

[Bangkok Barry]

27 minutes ago, Unify said:

I had a Thai friend take it from Rawai to the airport the other day. She asked several people along the route, when it was running, as the schedule info on the bus stop differed from the schedule info on the web site.

 

No one had even heard of it. She asked two street vendors whose businesses faced the street and both claimed there wasn't any bus. She asked a waitress and the waitress said she'd never seen nor heard o if it. A few minutes later, the big, blue, modern bus rolled by the windows of the restaurant.

 

When the time came to ride the bus, my friend was the lone passenger.

 

Sounds like normal Thai incompetence. Bus stop timetable says one thing, website says something different. And I'd guess that no-one has heard of it anyway as there was no promotion of it when it began or since.
An entirely difference circumstance, but a few years ago a handful of Nana Plaza bars tried operating during the afternoon. Of course, they didn't promote it, even putting a sign up at the entrance to the Plaza to say bars were open never occurred to them, so guess whether they dropped the idea due to lack of customers.

[Old Croc]

30 minutes ago, Unify said:

I had a Thai friend take it from Rawai to the airport the other day. She asked several people along the route, when it was running, as the schedule info on the bus stop differed from the schedule info on the web site.

 

No one had even heard of it. She asked two street vendors whose businesses faced the street and both claimed there wasn't any bus. She asked a waitress and the waitress said she'd never seen nor heard o if it. A few minutes later, the big, blue, modern bus rolled by the windows of the restaurant.

 

When the time came to ride the bus, my friend was the lone passenger.

The Rawai pier is a major departure point for Island hopping tourism. Scores of buses, full of sightseers (used to) jockey for position there daily. People along the main roads in Rawai have become inured to the sight and sounds of buses rolling by their windows.

Expecting a local street vender to be aware of bus timetables might be a bridge too far, particularly as Thais generally are not very observant, nor curious, about things of no personal interest.   

Because of the pandemic the bus service has been operating with a reduced service so it's hardly surprising the schedules printed on the stops are no longer accurate.

[Psimbo]

Interesting all the negative comments from people who have clearly never used this bus. Prior to Covid it was building up a steady stream of customers, locals as well as tourists. It was the only continuous West Coast bus service. Some commentators were almost disappointed that the drivers weren't beaten up and the buses torched ( as happened to ONE bus many, many years ago).

 

They decided to test the waters again with a reduced schedule just over a month ago. Then the second wave hit and it is clearly not viable to continue at present. The 'local' passengers were workers who now have no jobs and have gone home so this wiped out any residual custom.

 

Mock it if you will but it was one of the few transport successes in Phuket and if/when things improve I personally wish them the best of luck in resuming this service.

[ChipButty]

Certainly before covid it seemed to be doing ok, one bus around 5 pm was fairly busy 

Right now going up the west coast is dead there is no tourist not a good idea

Edited January 21, 2021 by ChipButty

[Shot]

@Unify, Smart Bus website had the revised Covid schedule posted, on their website a few months ago when they resumed service. I'm sorry your Thai friend didn't see it, it wouldn't have been logical to change all the physical signs for a temporary situation. 

 

It's really a shame, I used it frequently, it's a good service. Hope to see it back soon. 

 

 

 

 

[ChipButty]

Cant they use it for different route's? Like Rawai to Central or Rawai to Phuket Town, could go round in a big loop Rawai, Phuket town, Central, Patong, Karon and Kata then back to Rawai,

[Harry2]

Back in November I took it 3 times - Kamala-Kata, Kata -Patong &  Patong-Airport each time it was within 10 minutes of stated time & worked perfectly. Its an essential part of the tourism infrastructure for many travellers Thai/farang.