Public buses in BK

[garygooner]

How many of you use the buses from time to time? Just wondering what the payment methods are for the regular buses, aircon or not. Is it still cash with the bus conductor?  Cheers. 

[marin]

Even though I have a car I hate driving in central Bangkok. I  take a bus when necessary from Don Muang. You pay the conductor as you said for both air conditioned and normal. The normal are simply too hot. DM airport is always less than half an hour to Mochit BTS and you dont get the blabber mouth taxi drivers. Works for me. 

[dddave]

I've been taking Bangkok city buses for 20 years.  They were supposed to transition to an cashless payment system a few years ago and a lot of the new buses look like they are equipped for it but so far, it still seems to be cash.  To confuse things more, over the last year they re-numbered a number of primary routes so figuring out which bus goes where can be a challenge.  Some of the new buses have electronic destination signs alternating Thai and English script so that may be more helpful.  One of the really hard parts for non-Thai readers is many of the main routes have express routes for certain buses, jumping on the expressways and bypassing many normal stops.  figuring out which buses those are is not easy as it is usually just a small sign in the front.   
Some new private companies are now operating central city routes, "Thai-Smile" for one.  It will be interesting to see if any innovation comes out of it.  I've noted that many former "Red" non-AC routes like #71 & #305 are now using new, blue AC buses.

[Gaccha]

I haven't used them except very occasionally since the expansion of the metro services. But I was always amazed that they stuck to the same routes despite all the alternative transport networks growing around them. It just didn't make sense as they were following the route patterns for a city that no longer existed.

 

The App ('ViaBus') with all the positions via GPS of most of the buses on most of the bus routes hugely enhances the experience. We've gone from having no idea where buses go or how frequent, to knowing the exact location of the buses in real time.

 

I'm sure it'll be a long time for all the routes to use a card for payment.

[Denim]

When in Bangkok I am happy to use the buses outside commuter times when the get to crowded..

 

A long long  time ago a friend of mine and myself were on a non air bus heading for Silom. We were the only passengers mid day. By the time we got off we had a date with the female driver and the equally pretty conductress. Happy days.

[Plern]

I usually do two 12 hr round trips to phang nha annually.

 

Better to live and work dead on transit lines. I've nothing against busses and remember when blue blues traveled have full because they were so expensive. Thais have upgraded, I've upgraded.

 

Also, I take the 430 am bus from mor chit into central krung thep maha nakon twice a year returning from S Thailand